This course offers a broad historical survey which aims at introducing students to the major developments in world history, in a period from the late eighteenth century to the present during which the world became increasingly interdependent. The course will adopt a comparative approach where possible and will be particularly concerned with the theme of globalisation. This course does not aim to b...

This course explores the history of Hong Kong in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Beyond the simple narrative of a ‘barren rock’ transformed into a metropolis, the course looks into the history of Hong Kong not only from the angle of political and economic development, but also through social and cultural lens. We study the history of Hong Kong in relation to broader modern Chinese history,...

In this course, we will explore the history of modern East Asia, with a particular focus on China, Japan and Korea, from around 1800 to the present. We will not simply study the histories of individual countries but also pay attention to how countries and regions within East Asia interacted and influenced each other. This course will take students from the turn of the 19th century through the arri...

This course introduces U.S. history, society, and culture, from the Native Americans to the arrival of European settler colonialism, U.S. independence, and the development of the modern industrial nation-state of the United States, considering such topics as slavery, the Civil War, segregation, civil rights, women's suffrage and 20th century feminisms, U.S. expansionism, imperialism, and 20th...

This course looks at the manner in which film has portrayed events in history, considering the degree to which film can enhance or be detrimental to our understanding of history. Students may expect to gain some appreciation, not just of the films themselves, but of the degree to which any movie is the product of a certain historical period and reflect its values and preoccupations. This course sh...

In this course we look at key social and cultural aspects of European ‘modernity’ in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, exploring in particular the way Europeans from all kinds of backgrounds were defined and defined themselves in relation to work, leisure, race, gender, regions and cities. We look at the impact of new forms of cultural expression such as advertising, cinema, sport and leisur...

This course follows the thematic approach, with attention paid to both the intellectual leaders and the intellectual developments in China during the twentieth century. The leaders include Liang Qichao, Cai Yuanpei, Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, Li Dazhao, Lu Xun, Gu Hongming, Lin Shu, Liang Shuming, Tao Xisheng, Chen Yinke, Chen Lifu, Xiong Shili, Zhang Wentian, Qian Mu, etc. The discussion of the intellec...

Who has felt authorised to narrate their life history and what has compelled them to tell explanatory stories that make sense of their lives? How accurate is it to call autobiography the history of the self? Do we encounter other histories or selves in autobiography? What is the history of autobiography and how do we read it? Historians reading autobiography for documentary evidence of the past an...

During the Cold War period, Germany was divided into two independent states for more than forty years: The western-oriented Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern-oriented German Democratic Republic (GDR). Under the auspices of the respective superpowers, USA and USSR, the Bonn and the East Berlin governments developed their own political and economic systems but also a distinct way of...

This course is an introduction to cultural history with a specific focus on the relatively new and rapidly expanding academic field of food history/food studies. The approach will be thematic rather than chronological. In an effort to deepen interdisciplinary as well as disciplinary knowledge, we will engage texts and theoretical perspectives from other fields/disciplines in addition to history.