Mass incarceration has resulted in an unprecedented growth in prison populations in our contemporary world. Yet the prison’s central place in the punishment of criminal acts is a relatively recent one. This course examines the emergence of the modern prison as a global institution of punishment and power. It examines changing penal cultures across time and space, considering similarities and diffe...

This course considers the wave of revolutions which rocked France and the British, French and Spanish empires in the New World at the end of the 1700s and the beginning of the 1800s. These inter-connected revolutions transformed France and led to independence and revolutionary change in the United States, Haiti, and much of Spanish-speaking Latin America. This course considers these revolutions as...

This course considers the early modern Atlantic world, one of the most significant fields of inquiry in European, African, American studies, covering the period from the European “discovery” of the Americas until the Americas began to achieve political independence at the end of the 1700s. Many of the interactions which spanned the Atlantic were imperial, and this course considers British, French,...

This course examines beauty, skin, and cosmetics from the nineteenth century to today. Students will consider the similarities, differences, and interconnectedness of beauty practices across time and place, examining how they reveal global and local structures of gender, race, and class. The course will consider how entrepreneurs shaped beauty markets, how advertisements visually represent ideals...

From Ladies Home Journal and Cosmo to Ms. Magazine and Riot Grrrl zines, women’s magazines have reflected and shaped the lives of women across the world. Students will explore how historians have studied female periodical literature both as subject and sources. The course will introduce students to secondary literature that explores the historical development and social and cultural impacts of wom...

What do Bruce Lee, an 1840s Japanese maidservant, 1920s Tianjin carpets, and a 17th century banjo have in common? Global historians follow them all, analyzing how people, things, capital, ideas, weather, and disease move across borders, mountains, and oceans. In this course, we will learn to do what global historians do through close reading of award-winning work. We will consider how global histo...

How can we move beyond ethnocentric approaches to history focusing upon the nation? What is the significance of the movement of individuals and institutions through networks spanning places, spaces, regions and political units to processes of historical transformation? Recently, calls have been heard for historians to respond to critiques of the national and comparative paradigm by adopting what h...

The aim of this intensive reading course is to provide an opportunity for students to pursue a specialized topic of study with a faculty member. Throughout the semester, the student and teacher will consult regularly on the direction of the readings and on the paper or papers (not to exceed 5,000 words) that will demonstrate the student’s understanding of the material. This course cannot normally...

Tourism has been described as the largest peaceful movement of people. It also plays an important economic function in many societies. But tourism is never simply about travel and economics. It both reflects and influences identity, culture, society, urban planning, politics, and history. National or local identity, for example, is often forged though images produced or reproduced for tourists, wh...

Science Fiction as a genre was established at the turn of the 20th century, partly, as a medium through which to envision a future beyond capitalism, in other words, as a means to envision socialism. Some of the genre’s foundational tracks in both the United States and Russia made for important discussions on this question. With the advent of the Cold War, science fiction continued to provide an i...