Detailed descriptions of many of this year’s graduate seminars are available here, to assist in choosing classes.
Below are detailed description of the History graduate seminars that will be offered in 2010-11.
For more information on a particular seminar, please contact its instructor.
NOTE: All information is subject to change. Our Courses page may be more up to date.
If you see a “download” link in that listing, a more complete syllabus is available.
Additional information may also be found by following the link in the left column of the instructor’s faculty page.
SPRING 2011 – – – – – JUMP DOWN TO FALL 2010
201AM Advanced Historical Literature: America W 9:00-11:50 HSSB 2252 Kalman
This graduate seminar goes along with my legal history course. Those of you who enroll in the graduate seminar would go to the lectures on T-Th. That way, I can give you some background and you can hear what i have to say. Then, fueled by some really interesting additional reading, we will meet separately each week and discuss the topics covered in lecture. Topics covered include, in rough chronological order or topically,
- the "conservative" "old" supreme court of 1890-1930s;
- court packing; legal realism; the history of legal thought, generally (in seminar, we will be reading Neil Duxbury’s wonderful and very entertaining book that takes you from legal realism through process theory through law and economics and critical legal studies);
- the Warren court and attempts to continue it and dismantle it (Republican revival in legal theory, original intent controversy);
- impeachment;
- and throughout the course, one of my own personal favorites, the history of legal education.
Since you will be going to lecture, I promise I will work very, very hard to keep the additional seminar readings manageable!
201AM Advanced Historical Literature: America T 1:00-3:50 HSSB 2202 Plane
HI 201AM, Colonialism in Colonial North America, explores seminal areas of historiography and new research in early North America (1492-1800). Students will read and discuss one book each week, as well as choosing two weeks that reflect areas of particular interest where they will read and report on a second related work. A final historiography paper in an area related to the student’s research is also required. Topics we will explore: cross cultural encounters; witchcraft, magic and religion; Slavery and the Atlantic slave trade; gender and sexuality; material culture and consumption; political formation and Imperial crisis.
201AM Advanced Historical Literature: The US and the Middle East W 9:00-11:50 HSSB 4041 Yaqub
In this seminar we will examine U.S. involvement in the Middle East over the last two hundred years, with a special emphasis on relations since the mid-twentieth century. Early forms of such involvement include the image of Islam in the formation of American political identity, naval clashes between the United States and the Barbary powers, American missionary activities in the Middle East, and the impact of Wilsonianism on Middle Eastern politics. As we get further into the modern era, we will pay greater attention to the political, diplomatic, strategic, and economic aspects of U.S.-Middle East relations, focusing on the Arab-Israeli conflict, superpower rivalry, decolonization, Middle Eastern nationalism, oil, U.S. military interventionism, and the background, meaning, and aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001. Finally, we will look at the history behind the extraordinary internal upheavals that have swept the Middle East since late 2010 and at role the United States has played in inspiring, hindering, and complicating those events. The course considers the perspectives not only of the American government and people but of Middle Eastern societies as well, seeking deeper explanations for the resentment and mistrust with which many Middle Easterners have come to regard the United States.
201AW Advanced Historical Literature – Atlantic World F 10:00-12:50 Ellsn 2816 Cline
This graduate course is designed to introduce students to the basic themes and debates on the Atlantic world 1500-1800.
Course requirements:
- Weekly attendance & participation
- Weekly response paper 2-3 pages, double-spaced
- Final paper – 15 pages.
Readings:
- David Armitage and Michael J. Braddick, eds. The British Atlantic World, 1500-1800, Palgrave 2002.
- Bernard Bailyn, Atlantic History: Concept and Contours. Harvard University Press 2005.
- Thomas Benjamin, The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans, Indians and Their Shared History, 1400-1900. Cambridge University Press 2009.
- John K. Chance, "The Economy" (chap. 4) Conquest of the Sierra: Spaniards and Indians in Colonial Oaxaca. University of Oklahoma Press 1989. (pdf will be available)
- J.H. Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830. Yale University Press 2006
- Jack P. Greene and Philip Morgan, eds. Atlantic History: A Critical Appraisal. Oxford University Press 2008.
- James Lockhart "Double Mistaken Identity: Some Nahua Concepts in Post Conquest Guise" in Of Things of the Indies: Essays old and New in Early Latin American History. Stanford University Press 1999.
- James Lockhart and Stuart B. Schwartz, Early Latin America. Cambridge University Press 1982.
- Karen Spalding, "Kurakas and Commerce: A Chapter in the Evolution of Andean Society" Hispanic American Historical Review v. 53 (4) 1973, pp. 581-599
- John Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World. Cambridge University Press 1998.
201E Advanced Historical Literature: Europe TBA TBA TBA Blumenthal
201HS Advanced Historical Literature: The Politics of Science T 3:00-5:50 HSSB 2201 Alagona
This course will explore the role of science in modern democraticvsocieties. Contrary to popular belief, science is now–and always has been–a political endeavor. We will explore key concepts and case studies related to the production and use of scientific knowledge and the role of science in society. Our
case studies will focus on the areas of environment and human health, during the 20th and 21st centuries, but the implications will extend much further.
201ME Advanced Historical Literature – Middle East T 2:00-4:50 Girv 2135 Humphreys
This reading seminar is about the rise of Islam in South Asia, covering (very selectively) a fairly good chunk of time, from the Arab conquest of Sind to the decay of Mogul power–that is, from 711 to ca. 1750. The reading list is still under construction, so to speak, but it will likely include the following:
- Andre Wink, Al-Hind, The Making of the Indo-Islamic World (vols. 1-3)
- C. E. Bosworth, The Later Ghaznavids Peter Jackson, The Delhi Sultanate
- Stephen F. Dale, Indian Merchants and Eurasian Trade
- Richard M. Eaton, The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760
- Richard Foltz, Mughal India and Central Asia
- Douglas Streusand, Islamic Gunpowder Empires
I would like, in principle, to deal with the Muslims of Mritish India, under the Company and direct rule, but too much is too much. We will end at the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War.
213A Seminar in Roman History TBA TBA TBA DePalma Digeser
This seminar will focus on the ancient city of Ephesos in anticipation of the Ancient Mediterranean Studies class there this coming summer. Reading will take a “borderlands” approach to the history of the city, and students will develop their own research paper goals based on what they hope to achieve there. Students who do not intend to travel to Ephesos may enroll in the class; their research should touch on the city itself or adopt a borderlands approach.
232A War Studies TBA TBA TBA Staff
287 Readings with Japanese Scholars TBA TBA TBA
292C Foundations of U.S. History, 1917 to Present T 1:00-3:50 Girv 1106 Lichtenstein
294 Colloquium in Work, Labor, and Political Economy Lichtenstein
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201AF Advanced Historical Literature: Africa T 2:00-4:50 HSSB 4020 Chikowero
Nationalism and Liberation
This course seeks to understand nationalism as a major socio-political ideology in modern African history. How do we account for its rise and development? Does the idea share the same roots, and did its progression follow the same routes and contours as in other parts of the world?
Select Readings
James Africanus Beale Horton, Africanus Horton, the Dawn of Nationalism in Modern Africa, 1969. Ndabaningi Sithole, African Nationalism. Toyin Falola, Nationalism and African Intellectuals. James Smoot Coleman, Nigeria: Background to Nationalism. Partha Chatterjee, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse. Terence Ranger, Revolt in Southern Rhodesia, 1896-97: A Study in African Resistance. Gaurav Desai, Subject to Colonialism: African Self-Fashioning and the Colonial Library. Terence Ranger, Are We Not Also Men? The Samkange Family and African Politics in Zimbabwe, 1920-1964. Gregory Maddox, African Nationalism and Revolution. Jay Straker, Youth, Nationalism and the Guinean Revolution.
201AM Advanced Historical Literature: America R 2:00-4:50 HSSB 4041 Daniels
The Autobiographies of Civil Rights Activists
The more than two hundred autobiographies published by activists in the civil rights movements provide a unique angle of vision upon one of the U.S.’s most tumultuous political, social, and moral crises of the last century. After reading the following works, students will write essays on these and other autobiographies, examining them from the perspective of a particular individual or by focusing upon a specific event.
Mary White Ovington, Black and White Sat Down Together W. E. B. Du Bois, Dusk of Dawn Dorothy Height, Open Wide the Freedom Gates John Lewis, Walking with the Wind Stokley Carmichael, Ready for Revolution Scribner Angela Y. Davis, Angela Davis: An Autobiography Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography
201AM Advanced Historical Literature: America Changed 9/20/10: MONDAYS 2:00-4:50 room tba Furner
This course will look at "Capitalist Crises, Political Economy, and Government Regulation" from an internal U.S. and an international perspective, beginning with the 1890s depression and the U.S. banking panic of 1907 and extending through the recent and ongoing worldwide financial meltdown, 2007-2010. This course should interest grad students working on subjects in political, social, intellectual, or public policy history that include aspects of financial regulation and deregulation, business and labor standards, debates and discourses about the role of government in relation to the business cycle, state building and withdrawal, social costs of mass unemployment, government role in job creation, income and wealth inequality, social security, and the race and gender dimensions of social citizenship.
Brinkley, Alan. End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War. 1996. $11.53 Bruner, Robert F. The Panic of 1907. Lessons Learned from the Market’s Perfect Storm. 2008. $11.53 Carpenter, Daniel. Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy: Reputations, Networks, and Policy Innovation in Executive Agencies, 1868-1928. $35.00 Hayek, Friedrich. The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents. University of Chicago Press, 2007. $9.35 Kindleberger, Charles P. Manias, Panics, and Crashes. A History of Financial Crises. 5th ed. 2005. $14.93 Phillips-Fein, Kim. Invisible Hands: The Businessmen’s Crusade Against the New Deal. 2010. $12.66 Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation. Beacon Press, 2 ed. 2001. $19.68 Skowronek, Stephen. Building a New American State: Expansion of National Administrative Capacities, 1877-1920. 1982. $40.10 Stiglitz, Joseph E. Free Fall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy. $18.45 hard back. (Is a paperback out yet? Don’t see it on Amazon.)
201AS Advanced Historical Literature: Asia M 2:00-4:50 HSSB 2202 Roberts
Readings in Japanese History.
Will introduce key monographs and essays that apply various methodologies to topics in premodern and modern Japanese history. Some readings will be tailored to student’s particular interests.
201E Advanced Historical Literature: Europe W 10:00-12:50 HSSB 4041 North
Cultural History of Eighteenth-Century Germany
The eighteenth century has generally been considered the age of Enlightenment. According to this view, the inroads that reason made into the various areas of life and, with this, the advancement of education and scholarship in many European countries made the epoch what it was. Our reading seminar puts the focus on eighteenth-century German culture and broadens the traditional view by including representation, luxury, fashion and sociability as well as the new markets for cultural consumption (art, books, music, theater etc.).
Literature:
James van Horn Melton, The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe, Cambridge 2001;
Michael North, Material Delight and the Joy of Living: Cultural Consumption in Germany in the Age of Enlightenment, Aldershot 2008;
T. C. W. Blanning,, The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture: Old Regime Europe 1660, Cambridge 2003.
201LA Advanced Historical Literature: Latin America T 3:00-5:50 HSSB 2202 Soto Laveaga
This reading seminar will explore basic questions about social movements in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, for example: When and why do social movements occur? Why do some fail and, more important, what constitutes success? How has technology (telephones, cell phones, Facebook, texting) altered the nature of protest?
Some themes that will be analyzed during the course of seminar are: protests by teachers, the global sixties; the civil rights movements; protests by white collar workers–(Pakistani) lawyers or (Mexican) physicians–; and protest under dictatorships and repressive regimes.
Some foundational texts that will be used:
Repression And Mobilization (Social Movements, Protest and Contention), by Christian Davenport, Carol Mueller
Policing Protest: The Control of Mass Demonstration
by Donatella della Porta, Herbert Reiter Reiter
Policing Dissent: Social Control and the Anti-Globalization Movement (Critical Issues in Crime and Society), by Luis Alberto Fernandez
Waves of Protest: Social Movements Since the Sixties, by Victoria Johnson Jo Freeman
The Social Movements Reader: Cases and Concepts, by Jeff Goodwin, James M. Jasper
202 Historical Methods M 3:00-5:50 HSSB 4041   Bernstein
Note 9/15/10: a second section has been added, Thu. 3-5:50 in Hssb 4041. This course will not be offered again until Fall 2011.
Hist 202 is a course focused around the interactions between theories of history and professional developments from the mid-19th century to the present. This course is designed to explain what historians mean when they talk about post-modernism, the cultural turn, the Annales school, objectivity, etc. and to explore how approaches to history have changed over time. Some major authors we will read include, Leopold von Ranke, Karl Marx, Peter Novick, E.P. Thompson, Lucien Febvre, Fernand Braudel, Joan Scott, Natalie Davis, and Hayden White. The writing assignment provides the opportunity for each student to assess how these historical philosophies and practices have influenced their individual field.
See the course listing for a syllabus.
203A Seminar in Comparative History T 3:00-5:50 HSSB 3201 Spickard
Writing About Race, Migration, Gender, and Colonialism
This is a two-quarter research and writing seminar for graduate students in history and related disciplines. The general subject is the history of race, migration, gender, and colonialism in various eras and parts of the world. Each student will work on an original research project using primary sources that will result in a 35-50 page paper of publishable quality by the end of winter quarter. In addition to the books listed below, there is a course reader available for purchase at Grafikart.
204 Research Workshop M 9:00-11:50 HSSB 4041 Marcuse
The History faculty created this course in Spring 2008 to provide a venue in which students from all historical fields can work in common on the writing of seminar papers and dissertation chapters. Students in History 204 will meet regularly outside of class with their own mentors; in class, they will read and comment on drafts of each other’s work. When they have taken this course in conjunction with a History 201 in which suitable preparation for writing a research paper has been done, students may petition to have the two courses (201+204) count for research seminar credit.
The goal of the course is to write an article-length paper based on original research. A core component of the course will be regular submissions of written installments. Students will read and critique each other’s work in pairs or groups of three, with the entire seminar reading both one student’s draft and a pertinent published article or chapter each week. Parallel to that work there will be four major topical units:
- Research strategies: finding and recording information (databases, archives, note-taking and digital aids)
- Strategies for organizing notes
- Structuring an article (outlines, thesis statements)
- Writing (organization, grammar, style, argument, advanced word processing)
246A Postcolonial and Postmodern Discourses on Africa and the Middle East: TBA Gallagher
Points of Contention
The goal of this seminar is to prepare students for the MA exam, for written and oral PhD exams, for the dissertation process, or for general advanced level research. Each student will bring in three articles or book chapters that he/she would like us all to read during the course of the quarter. These items should fit broadly into the theme of the seminar.
Each student is required to write a term paper based on primary and secondary sources. This paper may be of general interest, for exam preparation, or background research for the dissertation. The paper should be about 30 pages. We will prepare outlines and bibliographies in Fall Quarter.
Each student should also plan on writing one publishable book review. I will explain this process in seminar.
We will also prepare syllabi for a course in Modern Middle Eastern OR African History (or both). There are many ways to prepare a syllabus: students must select themes, areas of interest, key dates, books, films, and assignments.
All reading assignments will be available on ERES.
277AB (Fall-Winter) History of Modern Science and Technology Research Seminar T 3:00-5:50 HSSB 3202 McCray
This is a graduate level research seminar; in it, students will write a research paper, based on primary and secondary sources, on a topic of their choice which deals with the social, intellectual, and/or cultural aspects of science and/or technology. The time period and geographic region are relatively open so long as this is after 1800. The final product of this two quarter seminar will be a research paper suitable for publication in an specific academic journal or which could serve as a chapter of your dissertation (i.e. between 7500 and 10,000 words, not including notes).
294 Colloquium in Work, Labor, and Political Economy F 1:00-3:50 HSSB 4041 Lichtenstein
This is a year-long graduate reading seminar sponsored by the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy, and funded by the Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts and the MacArthur Foundation.
Students can earn 4 units over the course of three quarters. History 294 hosts visiting historians, social scientists, and non-academics, both from UCSB and around the country, who offer talks and papers on their latest research, usually bearing on some aspect of 20th century labor, race, politics, and public policy. The course is open to the entire UCSB academic community as well as to any others who wish to attend. Requirements for course credit include regular attendance and reading of papers made available on the web and participation in workshop discussions.
We have divided this year’s set of colloquium presentations into three topics: Fall quarter is devoted to the state of the labor movement; Winter quarter takes up the recent financial and economic crisis; while Spring is devoted to the work of legal historians.
Events are open to others as well, and will be posted on the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy homepage, as well as listed in this site’s homepage Events column.
- October 7: Matt Garcia, History, Brown University. “Caesar Chavez, the UFW Boycott, and Why the Union Failed to Realize its Potential.”
- October 15: John Borsos, Executive Vice President, National Union of Health Care Workers. “Democracy and Insurgency in Health Care Unionism.”
- November 5: Andrew Ross, American Studies, New York University. “Green Jobs/Sustainable Labor in the Age of Climate Justice.”
- December 3: Stephen Lerner, Executive Council, Service Employees International Union. “Is Conventional Trade Unionism Obsolete?”
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WINTER 2011
200WD Historical Literature: World Mon. 1:00-3:50, Girv 1106 Marcuse
This seminar is intended for students preparing a third dissertation exam field in World History, and for students wishing to develop expertise in teaching World History for jobs and job applications. Thus there is a dual focus: on the theory and historiography of the field, and on practical issues of teaching World History survey courses. Students will write two book and two textbook reviews, prepare a lecture with an accompanying resource guide, and develop their own syllabus. I plan to ask colleagues from the department to join us at times to talk about their teaching strategies and experiences. There are two main readings:
- Ross Dunn (ed.), The New World History (Bedford, 2000), and
- Heidi Roupp (ed.), Teaching World History in the 21st Century (M.E. Sharpe, 2010).
201C Historical Literature on Nations and Nationalism   F 9-12 Edgar
This seminar will introduce students to recent theoretical and historiographical debates on the origins and evolution of nationhood in the modern world. The past three decades have witnessed the production of a voluminous literature on nationalism by scholars in a variety of disciplines, ranging from history and anthropology to cultural studies and literary theory. Some of these scholars see nations as modern manifestations of much older ethnic communities, while others emphasize the essential modernity and “social constructedness” of nations. Some treat nationalism as a problem of intellectual history, while others analyze the discourses and symbols of nationhood or study the intersection of nationalism with class and gender identities. We will read works by authors representing a wide range of views and focusing on a variety of regions, including Eastern and Western Europe, the Indian subcontinent, China, and the Middle East.
201E Advanced Historical Literature: Roman Revolution   F 1-4 Digeser
This course will focus on the historiography of the late Republic and early Roman Empire, concentrating on the Roman Revolution.
201E Advanced Historical Literature: Europe   F 1-4 English
201E Advanced Historical Literature: Europe   W 9-12 North
The Dutch Golden Age (17th century)
During the 17th century the Netherlands became the leading economic and world power. This seminar explores the reasons behind the outstanding success of the Dutch in trade and industry, and the effects that this success had on the art world. Readings:
- Maarten Prak, The Dutch Republic in the Seventeenth Century, Cambridge 2005
- Michael North, Art and Commerce in the Dutch Golden Age, New Haven-London 1997
201LA Advanced Historical Literature: Latin America   W 2-5 Rock
203B Seminar in Comparative History   T 3-6 Spickard
Continuation of Fall 2010 research seminar
206 History and Theory: Public History   T 10-1 Bergstrom
This is a reading and discussion course on as many of the late-breaking developments in Public History (and neighboring scholarly realms) as we have time to cover. The two primary aims are:
1) to ask how the particular interests, demands & concerns of Public History have constituted its endeavors uniquely–its subjects, modes of inquiry, forms of presentation, criticism, and more–and affected the rest of history and surrounding disciplines, and
2) how the intellectual developments in the rest of history are, or ought to be, informing Public History.
215A Seminar in Medieval History   Lansing
246B Postcolonial and Postmodern Discourses on Africa and the Middle East: Points of Contention   Gallagher
This seminar is a continuation of History 246A. Students will prepare research papers for oral presentation, seminar discussions, and final submission.
277B Topics in the History of Science   T 3-6 McCray
293 Space, Culture, Power   T 1-4 Hancock
294 Colloquium in Work, Labor, and Political Economy   F 1-4 Lichtenstein
Hosts leading scholars of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century U.S. whose work touches upon the history and character of work, employment, labor, poverty, race, ethnicity, political economy, and public policy. The colloquium meets three to four times per quarter.
Events are open to others as well, and will be posted on the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy homepage, as well as listed in this site’s homepage Events column.
- January 21: Clyde Woods, Black Studies, UCSB, Topic TBA
- February 18: Neil Fligstein, Sociology, UC Berkeley. “A Long Strange Trip: The State and the Market for Mortgage Securitization, 1968-2010”
- March 4: Barry Eichengreen, Economics and Political Science, UC Berkeley. “The Crisis and the Global Economy.”
hm 8/30/10, 9/2; 9/10, 9/15, 9/20, 9/22, 11/5, 11/8, 11/28, 12/7, 12/15, 1/25/11, 1/30, 2/5, 3/9