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Note: This is a preliminary and tentative list of course offerings for 2022/23 and is subject to budgetary approval and changes. Please check back on a regular basis for updates.
To make course registration easier, we have provided you with the course registration numbers (CRNs). You won’t have to search for each course one-by-one, which will save you a fair bit of time.
All History students are required to fulfill area requirements. These are designed to ensure that students gain a familiarity with the history of different geographical regions as well as with different historical themes and time periods.
Courses carrying special numbers (HI299, HI346, HI347, HI496) are established when a faculty member has an interest in pursuing a topic of study that is not part of our regular course offerings. In exceptional circumstances 346, 347 and 496 numbers can be applied to directed studies and special reading courses (see below).
A directed studies or special reading course may be approved by the department and the Dean of Arts when a faculty member and student(s) have an interest in pursuing a historical topic that is not treated in regular courses. Such a course usually involves weekly discussion of readings by the instructor and one or several students. Proposals for such courses originate with the faculty member, for they are taught in addition to the faculty member's regular teaching and are labour intensive for both faculty and students.
A BA thesis (HI499) is an original piece of research usually based on primary sources which is submitted in a student's final year in addition to the fourth-year seminar required for an honours degree. In consultation with a faculty supervisor, the student develops a topic and bibliography, and spends the year researching and writing a thesis of about 40 pages. There is a final oral examination of BA theses by three members of the history faculty. While such an independent research project can be a very rewarding experience, students need to be highly motivated and self-disciplined to complete the research and writing in accordance with a pre-arranged timetable. Usually a project of this scope requires that the thesis topic and bibliography be established in the spring or summer before the commencement of the fourth year in September. To be eligible to enrol in HI499, students need preferably an "A-" or at least a "B+" average in history, the willingness of a faculty member to act as supervisor, and permission of the department. It is recommended that students interested in HI499 take HI398, preferably in the third year.
The History Research Specialization Option is available only to honours BA History (single honours) students. Students normally apply at the end of Year 2. Use the Program Selection Form on the Enrolment Services website. Entry into the program is competitive and decisions are based on the applicant's History GPA as of April 30.
To be eligible, a student must have a minimum GPA of 9.0 in all History courses prior to admission. To proceed in and graduate with the option, students must maintain a minimum GPA of 9.0 in all History courses.
First-year (100-level) courses focus on topics designed to appeal to students new to the university setting. They offer thematic approaches to the history of individual nations (Canada and the United States), regions (medieval Europe, modern Europe, North America) and thematic areas (cultural history, business history, military history). Courses rely mainly on lectures, but most courses include class discussion in tutorials.
Tutorials are discussion groups of about 25 students, the purpose of which is to enhance a student's understanding of the assigned readings and lectures through discussion. Regular attendance at tutorials is usually needed for good standing in a course. Preparation through reading of assigned material and a willingness to participate in discussion are essential for successful learning in tutorials, and students should realize that mid-term and final exam questions are often based on the assigned readings and the discussions that take place in tutorials. Participation grades for tutorial discussion (between 10% and 20%) encourage students to work together to explore the meaning of what they have been assigned to read.
The underlying idea in a first-year course is to introduce students to the persons, events, ideas and forces which have shaped history and which should form part of the cultural literacy of every educated person. Students normally read up to 50 pages per week from their textbooks or readers. Close attention is paid to developing effective writing skills, and students write at least one essay in their first-year courses. Students average 10-12 pages of written work in 100-level courses. The types of assignments assigned include book reviews, primary source analyses, and research essays. There is often a midterm in 100-level classes and always a final exam (typically worth at least 20% of the final grade). First-year courses vary in size but usually have 100 to 200 students. Students commonly take two 0.5 credit first-year History courses.
This course will examine a number of major conflicts that helped shape medieval society and determine not only the future development of Europe but also, to some extent, the rest of the world. Case studies will include not only military and political struggles, but also clashes between ideas and social conflicts involving class and gender. In the process, we will also consider how historians have themselves disputed with one another regarding some of these episodes.
This course surveys European history from the end of the First World War through to the present. Topics covered include: the Versailles postwar settlement; the rise of fascist politics; WWII; the Holocaust; the Cold War; 1960s political radicalism; Communism and anti-Communism; the fall of the Berlin Wall; and the wars of Yugoslav disintegration in the 1990s.
This course explores world history through the lens of alcohol. Alcohol has been everything from a necessary part of the diet, to a sacred element of religious rites, to a celebratory beverage, to a demonized drug. Topics include alcohol in religious life, changing patterns of consumption and production, the rise and fall of prohibition, and changing ideas of alcohol abuse and addiction.
This course takes thematic and problems-based approaches to uncover untold histories that seek to challenge popular historical narratives about Canada. Topics may include the resettlement of Indigenous lands and colonialism as the foundation of the Canadian state; the impact of industrialization on ordinary Canadians; immigration and the roots of systemic racism; the impacts of the World Wars; youth culture in the 1950s-70s; Americanization; and hockey during the Cold War. HI112 will also expose students to the ways in which historians construct arguments, use evidence, and interpret and represent multiple perspectives on the past.
This introductory world history course surveys a selection of ancient civilizations of Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas prior to European cultural and economic ascendancy. Among these civilizations are Han dynasty China, Classical Greece, the Roman Empire, and the early Indus valley cultures. This course looks at political and historical events and how they shaped culture, slavery, warfare, trade and commerce. Among topics that may be covered are Mexica (Aztec) human sacrifice, Chinese Terracotta warriors, the lost libraries of Timbuktu, Egyptian Pharaoh`s death tombs, the conquests of Alexander the Great, and Ancient Greek cross-dressing.
This course will explore eleven of the most important battles in world history. We will examine such topics as: the context of these battles; the commanders and armies that fought them; the strategy and tactics employed; the experience of combat; and the outcomes. Military history, however, is more than just an account of fighting. We will therefore also analyze how these battles affected the states, societies, and cultures that fought them.
How have entrepreneurs in the past executed to produce fundamental change? What is the history of the corporation? Why do we have mortgages? This course surveys business history in Western Europe and the Americas from 1500 to the present day. We debate the development of the corporation, the role of the individual in the market, the importance of consumerism, explanations for government regulation, and the history of economic thought. Structured around case studies, this course provides historical context to contemporary debates over business and society, while tracing how commerce and industry have had a transformative effect on the modern world.
This course proposes to exam the nature and consequences of war in the Western World from ancient times through to the 21st century. Although violent conflict has been a constant in human history, the ways in which people make war have changed dramatically over time. The course focuses on the changing face of warfare in a broad social and political context. It looks at how soldiers have been recruited, how armies have fought (i.e. with what weapons), how tactics and strategy have evolved over the centuries, and finally how warfare has affected non-combatant civilians.
Examines the role of revolution in shaping the history of the modern world. From the start of the Scientific Revolution beginning in the mid-16th century to the Iranian Revolution of the late 20th century, students examine how revolutions begin and the scope of political, social, economic, and cultural changes they cause. While analyzing several case studies students interrogate the definition of revolution itself and determine its feasibility as a historical category. (Online learning only.)
The history of Western art (painting, sculpture, architecture, and decorative art) from the 15th century to the present. Included are the arts of the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Romantic, Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary periods. Works of art are examined in terms of the nature of the creative experience, art in the life of the individual and of society, and the influence of changing materials and practices over time. Through different role playing activities students develop skills in art writing and curatorial interventions (Online Learning only).
This course traces how the concept of the hero was developed and redefined in the changing media and modes of storytelling in a selection of ancient societies that could include those of the Mediterranean Basin (e.g. the Bronze Age Near East, Archaic and Classical Greece and Rome), ancient Asian societies, and the traditions of Indigenous cultures of the Americas. In addition to examining different types of story patterns (e.g., descents to the Underworld), and heroic characters (e.g., trickster-heroes such as Odysseus), students explore how methods of transmission affected heroic narrative, and how storytelling traditions reflect some of the historical and political changes of the societies that created, transmitted and used them.
A hands-on introduction in both theory and practice to computer hardware, software, and open access/source tools digital tools targeting such areas as typesetting, and basic audio and image manipulation1 Ethics and aesthetic concerns in traditional and multimedia documents are also discussed, and students develop digital research project for deployment through a content-management system such as WordPress2 as contributors within the context of a project team.
Second-year (200-level) courses provide a pedagogical bridge between broader first-year and more specialized upper-year courses. These courses are designed to advance students’ understanding of how historians approach the problem of explaining change over time, but they do so in ways that remain accessible to the generally interested. They accomplish these various goals by adopting chronological or biographical approaches which lend themselves to survey. Courses focus on nations or regions, or explore topics that are geographically bounded (borderlands or human rights) or those that are either global or completely thematic (history on film or the history of the Second World War).
Second-year courses vary in size from 50 to 150 students. The main method of instruction is the lecture though some courses include tutorials or discussion classes on significant themes and readings from assigned texts. Students are taught to think analytically through assignments that require them to identify the nature, purpose and content of selected primary sources and the argument of assigned secondary readings. The types of assignments required at this level include book reviews, analyses of primary sources, and research essays. All second-year courses require a final examination (typically worth at least 20% of the final grade). Students average 12-18 pages of written work in 200-level courses, and will typically read at least 50 pages a week.
A study of the foundations of modern Europe, exploring such topics as the scientific revolution, the rise of democracy, the growth of the absolute state, mercantilism and the Enlightenment.
A study of Europe in the nineteenth century, a period of upheaval in politics, economics and society. The course will explore the important issues of these formative years for modern Europe.
Charts Russia's spectacular rise and fall over more than a thousand years. We see how scattered city states in 900 managed to control one sixth of the world's land mass by 1900. Along the way we investigate the vital roles played by Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Catherine the Great. Important topics include: the Mongol invasion, the peasant village, the rise of Moscow and St. Petersburg; and the ways in which Lenin's Communist Revolution overwhelmed the Russian empire during World War One.
This course surveys major historical trends and changes in the United States since 1877. Themes addressed include politics, immigration, gender relations, minorities, mass culture, social movements, and the rise of America as a global power. Lectures, readings and discussions are designed to provide students with a basis for forming their own opinions about controversial issues in the field.
Mesoamerica defines a region of relative historical and cultural continuity that also contain distinct ancient civilizations. This course will examine the roots of pre-conquest Mesoamerican culture and its development, with particular focus given to the Maya and Aztec civilizations. Emphasis will be placed on architecture, religion, social organization, and values.
Prior to 1800 Asia was the centre and engine of the global economy and boasted the longest life spans, the largest and richest cities, and the most sophisticated and stable governments in the world. This course examines the histories of China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea and India at the height of their economic, military and cultural confidence. In addition, the course will study the major religious and political philosophies of the Asian world before significant European interaction.
A survey of Greek history from the rise of the city-state to the empire of Alexander with emphasis upon the evolution of Athenian democracy and upon movements toward unification of the Greek cities.
A survey of the development of Rome from its founding to the later Roman Empire. The emphasis is upon the unification of Italy, the growth of political institutions and the expansion of the Empire.
There's more to Egypt than mummies and pyramids. Egypt can also be seen as a cradle of civilization. This course will provide an introduction to the rich and fascinating civilization of Ancient Egypt. Topics to be addressed may include Egyptian religious beliefs, developments in medicine and mathematics, social relations, burial practices, and warfare.
World War II was one of the defining events of the 20th century. This course explores the military, political, social and cultural dimensions of the war in Europe, North Africa and the USSR. Topics and themes include: Hitler’s war aims; the uses of propaganda; civilian mobilization and "total" war; the Holocaust and the Nazi state; the war of annihilation on the Eastern Front; and the collaboration and resistance of civilians under Nazi occupation.
Change in the social and political structures of the United States has come only through struggle. This course traces battles for equality and human rights, and explores a series of movements to reform politics and culture in the United States. Areas of focus include Black egalitarianism, radical abolition, the early women's rights movement, Indigenous peoples' rights claims, and antiracist activism. Among the course themes are race, gender, class, education, and work, whether slave or free labour.
This course examines the historical experiences of Indigenous societies as they came into contact and interacted with empires. Such encounters encompassed first contacts, commercial networks, cultural exchanges, “colonial projects,” legislative frontiers, violence, and diverse forms of resistance (among many other things) over several different centuries and geographic regions of the world. Selected topics for the course may include: representations of Indigenous peoples; inter-Indigenous relations; contact zones; conquest; violence and resistance; trade and work; “colonial projects”; missions; and governmental policies towards Indigenous peoples.
This course examines a series of historical films on a selected theme. These films will be placed in their historical context and examined for content, bias and interpretation.
This course explores representations of the ancient world and allusions to ancient mythic themes in cultural products since the early 20th century until the present day. Students examine films, television shows, graphic novels, comic books and cartoons, novels, children's literature, poetry, art and other media to analyze how historical moments and mythological themes of the Greco-Roman world are borrowed and adapted for contemporary sensibilities.
This course will examine how ideas of madness have been understood, constructed and treated in modern Western history. Covering the past three centuries, discussions will not only examine the point of view of medical practitioners, they will also examine the ideas of the general public along with experiences of sufferers themselves, and how people fought back against asylums, mad-doctors, and social stigma.
Introduces students to the history of sexuality and offers a chronological and thematic survey of some of the major topics in the history of sexuality from antiquity to the so-called "Sexual Revolution" of the 1960s. Topics include definitions of sex, gender, and sexuality; sexual identities, communities, desires, and behaviours; relationships between sexual discourses and practices; and the various intersections between sexuality and class, gender, religion, age, ethnicity, and race. (Online Learning only).
A survey of Canadian history from Confederation to the present, which addresses key social, cultural and political issues while highlighting the history of Indigenous peoples. Topics include state expansion, modernization, protest and reform, war and society, class, gender and family, racialized identities, and the place of Canada in the world.
This course introduces students to environmental history with a focus on the period after 1500. Environmental history investigates the impact of climate, plants, animals, and microorganisms on societies over time and the influence of humans on their environments. Major topics include the effect of technology on the environment, the carbon economy, the environmental consequences of human migration, and the long-term history of today's climate crisis.
The internet allows the collection and expression of more voices, stories, and experiences than ever before. The volume of material, and the variety of technologies available, are also transforming the ways in which these incidents are told, collected, preserved, and transmitted. Creating and interacting within a virtual environment has encouraged a form of digital cosmopolitanism that challenges our notions of tangible space, linear time, and the link between “self” and body. This course will explore diverse methods of understanding and representing identity, time, and place across different disciplines and different digital media. Students will learn and gain hands-on experience with key apps and other software tools and produce their own digital projects. (No specific computer expertise is required.)
An introduction to central topics in the history and philosophy of science in Western culture up to the end of the 18th century, including discussion of the emergence, success and relative prestige of science; the concepts of progress and revolution; and the establishment and implementation of the Newtonian worldview in its social context.
Third-year (300-level) courses permit greater specialization and depth. In comparison to second-year courses, 300-level offerings facilitate a more intensive study of specialized themes or more narrowly defined historical periods. Most third-year courses combine both lecture and discussion components in class. The classes tend to be much smaller than second-year classes and rarely exceed the limit of 40 students.
In third-year courses the primary source becomes the pedagogical centrepiece. Students in third-year courses listen to music; study images; read novels, chronicles, memoirs, personal and governmental documents; and watch films in order to deepen their understanding of the experiences of people who lived in the past. The goal is to make students better appreciate how people in the past understood their own lives and cultures. Students are also introduced to the core problem of interpretation and reconstruction which will dominate the reading component of fourth-year courses.
Students are advised to complete at least 2.0 credits of 200-level courses before registering in a 300-level course. Honours students intending to go on to graduate school are encouraged to enrol in the department's Research Specialization Option (see below), which includes HI398: The Historian’s Craft, a course designed specifically to explore questions of historical method and to survey recent trends in historical scholarship.
The written assignments for third-year courses typically require some form of comparative assessment of either books or articles, or more involved analysis of longer and more complicated primary sources. Students at this level also normally write a research essay which requires them to define and set their own question based upon a specific primary source and/or a minimum number of secondary sources which they have identified for themselves from databases. Students average 24 pages of written work in 300-level courses, and will typically read up to 75 pages a week.
This course explores the principal themes and issues in modern Japanese history, and encourages thought and reflection on Japan's position in the modern world. From an archipelago little known in Europe, Japan has become the second largest industrial economy in the world, and the most affluent and stable society in East Asia. This remarkable economic, social and political transformation was neither easy nor smooth. This course will chart this transformation topically by examining political, economic, military and social change.
This course explores the intellectual, cultural, socio-economic and political history of Italy during the Renaissance, focusing on the development of renaissance humanism in terms of education and scholarship, politics and statecraft, sex and gender, artists and aesthetics, philosophy and religion.
History of Indigenous peoples (status and non-status "Indians," Inuit and Métis) in Eastern Canada, from the 10th century to the present. While considering the legacy of ancient Indigenous history and centuries of Indigenous autonomy, HI344 focuses especially on Indigenous Peoples under colonialism. Topics may include ancient Indigenous Canada; contact(s); fur trade(s); encounters with Christianity, destruction of the Beothuk, government policies for Indigenous peoples, Native activism; and cultural reclamation.
The History of the Global South Since 1945 will span the globe. Along the way we will meet the visionaries who dreamed of a world free from Cold War domination by the United States and the Soviet Union. Some were peacemakers, most were nationalists and many were revolutionaries. The course will examine the history of the Global South and the rise and fall of the ideology of the “Third World” after 1945 within the context of postwar global history. Topics will include decolonization and revolutions in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the development project in the Global South, the origins and course of the ideology of “Third Worldism” as a tool of nonalignment, and the legacy of decolonization in the postcolonial world.
The experience on the homefront during the First World War has long been depicted as a transformational period in Canadian history. Yet a more recent scholarship has argued that the shifts Canadian's experienced were not so novel, but were instead amplifying existing trends. This course examines a variety of themes on the Canadian homefront, such as politics, industry, gender, race, technology and disease to better understand existing trends, but also the new roles Canadian took upon themselves to fight the war at home.
Conflict was rampant in the first three centuries of US history. Controversy after controversy arose, tempers flared, and people passionately debated social roles, power, and morality. Americans from activists to reactionaries roiled their society, and this course focuses on key case studies of their tumultuous times. Topics may include colonial power struggles over such issues as slavery and witchcraft; midwives and doctors battling to control childbirth; social life in the new cities; class conflict and sexuality; clashes over abolitionism and labour rights; immigration and nativism; secession and dissent against the Civil War; and race, sex, and the vote during Reconstruction.
This course will explore the history of death in Canada from 1850 to 1950, examining experiences and discussions of mortality and how the living responded to death and memorialized it. Topics will include public health, crime, cemeteries, folklore, religion and mourning rituals.
This course will undertake a musical survey of America in the twentieth century, illuminating the history of American popular music from the turn of the century to present. By tracing the roots and evolution of the century's dominant musical genre - rock and roll - this course will explore various themes in twentieth century American history, such as race, gender, sexuality, class, war, technology and globalization, which have served to shape American culture and experience in the last century.
The fur trade was important in shaping the history of North America and relationships between Europeans and Indigenous peoples. This course explores that history focusing on the social, economic, and cultural history of the fur trade across North America between 1500 and 1821.
This course takes the Russian war against Ukraine as the starting point for examining the long history of Russian-Ukrainian relations. Beginning with recent events, the course adopts a long historical view by examining the following topics and themes: legacies of World War Two; tensions between history, memory and myth; Russian and Soviet imperialism; Russian nationalism; evolutions of Ukrainian national identity; and NATO expansion and regional security concerns; as well as the European Union and the idea of “Europe”.
This course is a thematic exploration of the history of Western medicine from the Ancients to Twentieth Century. Weekly modules are organized around a series of objects related to this history. Lectures and readings will focus on the historical development of the medical concepts to which each object relates to address their historical origins and how they transformed ideas about health and illness, the development of medicine into a profession, the evolution of medical science and technology, as well as their influence on social, political, economic, and military history. This course will look to the history of ideas about diseases and epidemics, medical interventions such as vaccination, military contributions to medicine, anatomical research, the history of women in medicine, the development of technologies for “seeing” inside the body, and the history of modern surgery. We will conclude with a discussion of the limits of Western medicine, including consideration of the history of non-Western approaches.
This course examines the ways in which Indigenous communities and nations defended their territories against colonial encroachment. Using a case study approach, this course will look at examples of land defense throughout Turtle Island (North America) since the arrival of Europeans. We will examine the range of ways that Indigenous peoples defended their interests including diplomacy, conflict, and resettlement. Case studies include but are not limited to Pontiac’s War, the War of 1812, and Oka. In paying particular attention to the imagery used to portray Indigenous peoples, we will examine how those images shaped Indigenous-settler relations over time.
During the Second World War, the Nazis destroyed two-thirds of European Jewry. In surveying the history of this genocide, the course explores Nazi policy toward the Jews in the context of German and European anti-Jewish ideology, modern bureaucratic structures, and the varying conditions of war, occupation and domination in Europe under the Third Reich.
This course addresses the relative equity of selected codified laws, legislated statutes and court decisions that influenced the quality of life offered Canadian families and their individual members during the first hundred years of Canadian nationhood.
This course examines the history of American protest music from the 1930s onwards. Topics to be considered include civil rights, black power, anti-war movements, and opposition to capitalism through such figures as Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, Gil-Scott Heron and Public Enemy.
Students will spend two weeks in Poland studying various aspects of the history of the Holocaust. We will tour the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, Oscar Schindler’s factory, the death camp at Belzec, as well as the newly opened Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, among other sites. In addition to learning about Jewish experiences during the war, we will pay particular attention to the ways in which the Holocaust is represented, commemorated and remembered by different constituencies in modern-day Poland.
Departmental approval is required.
This course examines laws relating to the family in the ancient Greco-Roman world. Students use inscriptions of laws, court documents, historiography and literature to explore issues such as patriarchal authority, the legal status of women and children, wills and inheritance disputes, adoption, marriage contracts, regulations pertaining to divorce, and legal obligations to orphans and elderly parents.
With the emergence of writing the mid-fourth millennium BCE, treasured tales began to be recorded and new ones composed in a variety of genres and for a number of purposes. Signature narratives from selected ancient Near Eastern cultures will be examined in light of their audiences' world view, including creation myths, legends, spells and incantations, and the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Who are we? Researching local and family history helps us to connect to our past. Local history is a building block in understanding our regional and national identities in Canada. Using a student-centred learning approach, this course utilizes rich online resources such as Ancestry.ca, Statistics Canada online profiles, virtual museums, and veterans records digitized by Archives Canada (Online Learning only).
History 398 is a course about how historians think and do their work. Through a combination of lectures, workshops, and seminars, the course explores a range of matters associated with the writing of history, including: how the practice of history has changed over time; the nature of historical sources; how historians support their claims to know about the past; the differences and relationships between history and memory; and the major approaches to understanding the past that have influenced the writing of history today. Throughout, the emphasis is on making explicit, and more comprehensible, the various ways in which historians explore the past.
This course will provide students with essential skills and hands-on experience in editing and publishing texts online. The course will explore representative examples of Open Access resources, examine the various software tools, and consider copyright and other aspects of online publishing. Students will put the skills they acquire to practical use by editing, annotating and publishing an online project of their own.
Fourth-year (400-level) courses are seminars and represent the crowning experience of the honours history program. Seminars are a form of learner-centered instruction in which students take responsibility for preparing their weekly readings for class discussion and for researching their primary-research papers, thereby empowering themselves through independent study. They hone their skills of oral and written expression by sharing their ideas and writing with other seminar participants. The instructors guide students in their exploration of historiography and in their research in primary documents. These courses promote discussion of historical literature and research on specific historical periods and themes (the Cold War; Classical Athens; American Political Extremism, for example). All History majors must complete at least one reading/research combination seminar; students in the Research Specialization Option take two reading/research seminars. These classes are relatively small and have an optimal size of about 15 students.
In the reading seminar students will engage deeply with the historiography of the chosen subject, reading the equivalent of one book per week, and writing essays varying in length from 12 to 20 pages. Discussions focus on the critical assessment of the analysis, context and methods employed in the secondary literature, and are crucial to a successful seminar.
In the research seminar students are guided in the preparation of independent research essay (usually of 25-30 pages in length) based on their own research in the relevant primary sources. Students will also present their work (in written and oral form) to their classmates. They are then required to respond to the feedback they receive, revise their written work, and re-submit. This approach teaches students the importance of effective oral and written communication and it also instructs them in how to respond to criticism. These are skills which will prove extremely useful to students well beyond the classroom setting.
A seminar course on particular aspects of medieval European history.
HI 405F is a “reading” or “historiographical” course which examines the place of food – and especially its absence – in modern European history. The course will begin with World War One and end with the humanitarian aid programs of the immediate post-World War Two period. In our weekly discussions we will explore the relationships between food, war, nationalism, economics, ideology, and the environment. We will examine these broad themes through specific examples or case studies to develop an understanding of food’s political importance.
This course examines the gendered history of Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island (North America), with an emphasis on literature pertaining to what is now Canada. We will meet weekly to discuss readings, comprised of scholarly monographs and articles, to explore understandings of gendered identities and what constitutes wellness. More specifically, we will examine the impact colonization had on the lives of Indigenous women, men, and two-spirit people. At the same time, we will discuss the ways in which Indigenous peoples worked against and resisted colonial policies. In our discussions of each week’s readings, students will be expected to consider historical and Indigenous methods, think about how the readings relate to each other, and identify the contributions they make to the literature.
A seminar emphasizing topics selected from the eras of contact, the French and British regimes and Confederation. Themes may include regional, social, economic, political and cultural problems.
Seminar investigations of problems in pre-and post-revolutionary Russia.
This seminar will examine the foundations of selected ancient societies across the globe. On a case-by-case basis, we will discuss such things as foundational beliefs, social structure and institutions, and value systems.
This seminar looks at what it was like to live in Italy during the Renaissance by examining three fundamental aspects of the human condition: love, sexuality and death. In the process, we will also deal with a variety of related subjects, such as law, politics and the state; gender, marriage and the family; religion, spirituality and philosophy; and grief and consolation.
A seminar course emphasizing topics selected from the eras of contact, the French and British regimes and Confederation. Themes may include regional, social, economic, political and cultural problems.
Seminar investigations of problems in pre-and post-revolutionary Russia.
HI497F is a continuation of HI405F and is a research course. Students will develop their own research topics on the subject of food and hunger in modern European history.
This seminar involves research and the creation of projects dealing with selected topics in the history and culture of the Ancient World.
Directed study and research on a topic appropriate to the student’s specialization and chosen in consultation with the faculty supervisor. Students in the single honours History BA program who receive departmental permission to take this course must also take two 400-level seminars (either two readings seminars or one readings seminar and one research seminar). Students in the combined honours History BA program must also take a 400-level readings seminar.