2022W History Course Descriptions

HIST 100: What is History

Instructor: Bill French

HIST 101: World History to Oceanic Contact

Instructor: TBA

HIST 102: World History from 1500 to the 20th Century

Instructor: Anne Murphy

HIST 103: World History Since 1900

Instructor: Steven Lee & Glen Peterson

HIST 104: Topics in World History

Instructor: Benjamin Bryce

HIST 105: Contemporary Global Issue in Historical Perspective

Instructor: Pheroze Unwalla

HIST 106: Global Environment History

Instructor: Eagle Glassheim

HIST 107: Global Indigenous Histories

Instructor: Coll Thrush

This course is an introduction to Indigenous and colonial histories at a global scale. While we will pay attention to local Coast Salish histories, as a way of acknowledging where UBC stands, we will also look at the experiences of Indigenous peoples in diverse places around the world. The course also serves as an introduction to doing Indigenous history, by working with a wide range of primary sources created by Indigenous people. No background in Indigenous issues is required, although it is welcome.

HIST 108: Global History of Capitalism

Instructor: Jessica Hanser

HIST 201: History Through Photographs

Instructor: Kelly McCormick

HIST 202B: Gateway to the Middle Ages

Instructor: Bonnie Effros

Problems and themes of medieval European History through the close study of the people and cultures that produced them, and how these themes have changed over time. We'll also assess the growing variety of sources on the Middle Ages such as DNA, isotopes, and faunal and botanical remains that help supplement written sources and shed light on topics such as medieval diet and agriculture, gender, trade inside and outside of Europe.

HIST 220A: Europe

Instructor: Michael Lanthier

HIST 235: History of Canada: Moments that Matter

Instructor: Tina Loo

HIST 236: Memory, Representation and Interpretation: Public History in Canada

Instructor: Tamara Myers

HIST 237: History of the United States

Instructor: Leslie Paris

HIST 240: Health, Illness and Medicine: Ancient World to Early Modern Period

Instructor: John Christopoulos

HIST 250: Major Issues in Latin American History

Instructor: Bill French

HIST 256: History of Africa

Instructor: Julian Wiedeman

HIST 260: Science and Society in the Contemporary World

Instructor: Alexei Kojevnikov

HIST 270: China in World History

Instructor: Aaron Molnar

HIST 271: Japan and Global History, 1550-1990

Instructor: Kelly McCormick

HIST 279: The Steppe Empires

Instructor: Shoufu Yin

"This course offers an introduction to world history up to 1800 CE with a focus on the powerful empires that flourished over the Eurasian Steppe, a vast area stretching from Eastern Europe all the way to East Asia."

HIST 280: Islamic World History

Instructor: Delbar Khakzad

HIST 302: Indigenous North America

Instructor: Coll Thrush

This course examines the long history of Indigenous nations and peoples and settler and other forms of colonialism in territories that are currently claimed by Canada and the United States. Topics will include ecological exchange, warfare, the law, gender and race, politics, and popular culture. The majority of the readings for the course are produced by Indigenous people, although we will also look at colonial narratives to better understand the workings of settler colonialism, a phenomenon that continues into the present.

HIST 304: Researching Local History from the Ground Up

Instructor: Laura Ishiguro

HIST 305: History of British Columbia

Instructor: Laura Ishiguro

HIST 311: The British Empire after 1850

Instructor: Lara Silver

HIST 319: Britain since 1945

Instructor: Michael Lanthier

HIST 324: Inventing Canada, 1840-1896

Instructor: Colin Grittner

HIST 325: Canada, 1896-1945

Instructor: Colin Grittner

HIST 326: Canada since 1945

Instructor: Tina Loo

HIST 330: History of the Global Financial Order

Instructor: Hicham Safieddine

This seminar explores the origins and transformation of the global financial order (18th century until present) in relation to war, state-building, money markets, international political economy, and colonialism. No prior knowledge of economics is required.

HIST 334: Senegambia to South Carolina, Ghana to Georgia: African-American History, 1450-1850

Instructor: Crystal Webster

HIST 335: From Slavery to Citizenship and Beyond: African-American History, 1850 to the Present

Instructor: Crystal Webster

HIST 339: The United States since 1945: The Limits of Power

Instructor: Leslie Paris

HIST 342: Modern Jewish History

Instructor: Richard Menkis

HIST 347: Medieval & Imperial Russia, 988-1800

Instructor: Alexei Kojevnikov

HIST 351A: East Central Europe

Instructor: Eagle Glassheim

HIST 352: Modern Middle East

Instructor: Pheroze Unwalla

HIST 354: Ottoman Empire

Instructor: Amaan Merali

HIST 357: History of Mexico

Instructor: Bill French

HIST 363: Europe, Early Middle Ages

Instructor: Josh Timmermann

HIST 365: Europe During the Renaissance

Instructor: John Christopolous

HIST 366: Europe During the Reformation

Instructor: John Christopolous

HIST 367: Europe in Enlightenment

Instructor: Carol Matheson

HIST 368: 19th Century Europe

Instructor: Carol Matheson

HIST 369: Europe 1900-1945

Instructor: Michael Lanthier

HIST 370: Europe Since 1950

Instructor: 1950

HIST 373: History of Hong Kong

Instructor: Clement Tong

HIST 379: Later Imperial China

Instructor: Shoufu Yin

HIST 380: The Making of Modern China: Nationalism, War, Revolution

Instructor: Glen Peterson

HIST 381: Imperialism and Nationalism in Southeast Asia

Instructor: Edgar Liao

HIST 382: Post-Colonial Southeast Asia

Instructor: Edgar Liao

HIST 384: The Making of Modern Sikhism

Instructor: Sharanjit Sandhra

HIST 385: India from Raj to Republic

Instructor: Anne Murphy

HIST 386: Korea Since 1860

Instructor: Archa Neelakandan Girija

HIST 396: Environmental History of the North America

Instructor: Tina Loo

HIST 397: Environmental History of the World

Instructor: Eagle Glassheim

HIST 402A: Problems in International Relations

Instructor: Alexei Kojevnikov

HIST 403: International law in Canadian history

Instructor: Bradley Miller

This seminar examines the history of international law in Canada and its role in shaping Canadian international relations. Topics include the law of war and national self-defence, the emergence of international environmental law, the international movement of marriages across borders, and the growth of international human rights.

HIST 403: The Middle East in Graphic Novels: History, Politics and the Tragic Comic

Instructor: Pheroze Unwalla

Once thought of as juvenile and immaterial to politics, society and culture, graphic novels are today frequently considered art forms, political satires and/or intellectual compositions fundamental to the health of our polities as well as our imaginings of past and present. This course will explore graphic novels with a focus on their representation of Middle Eastern history, politics and peoples. Reading such works as Joe Sacco’s Footnotes in Gaza, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, Craig Thompson’s Habibi, and several others, we will discuss the evolution of the medium, the fraught history of visually representing the Middle East, as well as the challenges and opportunities graphic novels present for understanding the region. On this latter note, particular attention will be paid to the use of graphic novels as works of journalism, oral history, and autobiography as well as to fundamental questions on the ethics of graphically representing tragic episodes from Middle Eastern pasts. Finally, given contemporary events associated with cartooning (i.e. the Charlie Hebdo massacre) we will also seek to grapple with such divisive issues as Islamophobia, Orientalism, free speech, and the uses and limits of satire.

HIST 403: The History of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire

Instructor: Eyyup Murat Ozyuksel

The historical context within which the Genocide occurred, the fragmentation within and between ethnicities as a result of modernization, the imperial appetites of the Great Powers, the aspirations and aims of the Armenians and Young Turks, the 1908 Revolution, and deterioration of Ottoman-Armenian relations after the Balkan Wars and WW1.

HIST 403: Making Peace After Making War: Versailles, Vienna, and Westphalia

Instructor: Michael Lanthier

In January 1919, two months after the armistice that ended the First World War, hundreds of statesmen and diplomats from thirty-two countries around the world gathered in Paris to draw up a series of treaties (including the Treaty of Versailles, which quickly became synonymous with the Paris Peace Conference as a whole): their ultimate aim was to solve virtually all the world’s outstanding geopolitical problems and ensure peace for generations to come.

While the Conference and its goals strike us today as quintessential examples of Western hubris, these must be understood as historical actors participating in an ancient ritual.  To fully understand the European tradition of peacemaking through treaties, we need to study both the Peace of Westphalia (1648) and the Congress of Vienna (1814-15): these earlier gatherings and the treaties that they produced reveal much about the mental universe of those seeking to build an edifice of peace in 1919.

This historical journey will shed light on the peacemaking processes of the twenty-first century, which have been shaped by this uniquely European understanding of polities (kingdoms, empires, nation-states) and the ways in which they deal with each other on the world stage.

HIST 403: The International System, 1975-2001: Historical Perspectives

Instructor: Steven Lee

This course will explore topics in modern international history, 1975-2001, from a comparative and global point of view. Themes will include the history of capitalism, social and environmental change, conflict, and the transformation of agrarian societies. Students will write an historiographical review essay and a second paper using primary sources.

HIST 403

Instructor: Jeff Byrne

HIST 406: World War II

Instructor: David Borys

HIST 409: American Foreign Policy, 1870-1945

Instructor: Lara Silver

HIST 414: Constitutions in Canadian History

Instructor: Bradley Miller

HIST 418: The 1960s in Global Perspective

Instructor: Tamara Myers

HIST 419: Crime and Punishment in Canadian History

Instructor: Bradley Miller

HIST 420: Topics in Canadian History

Instructor: Laura Ishiguro

History of Drugs in Canada

How can studying the past help us to understand drugs and their place in Canada today, from the recent legalization of cannabis to the current opioid crisis to the idea of "Dry January" and beyond? This question drives HIST 420, which examines the history of drugs in Canada since 1867. Focusing on a wide range of drugs - alcohol, amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine, LSD, opium, oral contraception, tobacco, and more! - we will explore the social, cultural, political, and legal histories of such drugs, the people who have used them, and their changing meanings, regulation, and (de)criminalization over time in northern North America. Major themes will include the relationship between ideas about drugs, identity, the law, and policing; changing understandings of use, treatment, and addiction; and&~ tensions between personal experiences, social meanings, popular culture, and medical, legal, and political approaches to different drugs. In addition to lectures, discussions, activities, and assignments, the course places a particular emphasis on learning through historical film, from drama, comedy, and documentary to media coverage and raw historical footage.

HIST 425: War and Society

Instructor: Jack Fairey

Comparative study of the causes, nature, and consequences of warfare across a broad spectrum of societies, regions, and time periods. Examination in particular on the major social, political, fiscal, technological, and cultural developments that enabled different societies to wage, evade, and survive wars successfully.

HIST 432: International Relations in the Twentieth Century

Instructor: Michael Lanthier & Heidi Tworek

HIST 441: The Holocaust

Instructor: Richard Menkis

HIST 443: North American Children and Youth

Instructor: Tamara Myers

HIST 453: Class and Culture in Latin America

Instructor: Tucker Sharon

HIST 460: Revolution and Resistance in the Third World

Instructor: Jeff Byrne

HIST 478: Medieval Portraits and Personality

Instructor: Josh Timmernmann

HIST 484: East Asian Military Systems and Warfare China

Instructor: Aaron Molnar

HIST 485: Asian Migrant/Vancouver

Instructor: Sharanjit Sandhra

HIST 488: Special Topics in Asian History

Instructor: Shoufu Yin & Kelly McCormick

This interdisciplinary course provides an introduction to urban history and theory to examine Shanghai and Tokyo from the 17th to 21st centuries. Organized thematically and following a roughly chronological order we address topics such as urban planning and design, war and destruction, travel and migration, food culture and popular media, memories of the past and imaginations of the future. In doing so, we delve into moments of connection and rupture between the histories of Shanghai and Tokyo, to understand broader transformations in Japanese, Chinese, Asian, and global histories. Utilizing perspectives from official documents, travel journals, maps, photographs, and films, this course encourages students to think about the history of urbanization in Asia from diverse perspectives.

HIST 490: Teenagers: Coming of Age in North American History

Instructor: Tamara Myers

This research seminar investigates the rise of the teenager and the phenomenon of coming of age in North American history. Drawing from history, law, film, media, music, literature, psychology, and medicine this course delves into how and why the teenager was invented and subject to contested definitions. We’ll look at how youth captured the imagination of each generation; how as an age category it was at once a problem and a promise. Among the topics we’ll cover: the experience of coming of age; how the teenager was conjured by social science and the media; how race, class, gender, ability, and ethnicity shaped the definition and experience of adolescence; the spaces of adolescence; youth culture; sexuality; and the rights of the child. We’ll work with a variety of source materials that address the visual, sonic, and material cultures of teens, as well as a variety of first-person narratives and expert textual materials.

HIST 490: Migration in the Americas

Instructor: Benjamin Bryce

This course highlights the centrality of migration and cultural pluralism in the history of the Americas. It focuses on the people who migrate and on the responses of government officials, workers, politicians, and other migrant groups to new arrivals. Topics include diplomacy, government policies, gender, the construction of racial categories, and nationalism.

HIST 490: Media and Gender in East Asia

Instructor: Jihyun Shin

This course examines selected topics in the histories of East Asia in the twentieth century, using media and gender as analytical tools.

HIST 490: Modern Arab and Islamic Thought

Instructor: Hicham Safieddine

This course critically examines the rich and diverse history of political, social, and economic thought across the Middle East and North Africa from the 19th century until the present. Themes discussed include liberalism, nationalism, socialism, Islamic reform and government, feminism, and economic development.

HIST 490

Instructor: Bill French

HIST 490: Polish Historiography of the Holocaust

Instructor: Ania Switzer

This course introduces students to Holocaust historiography in Poland. Our aim is to reconstruct the process of the institutionalisation of the recent past, beginning with the foundations laid by those who had perished in the Holocaust, and continued by historians who were survivors themselves and by other scholars. We will then examine the most recent and highly contentious developments in Holocaust historiography in Poland, and their broader and comparative context. Our goal is to identify the questions that arise from the present situation, and their implications.

HIST 490

Instructor: TBA

HIST 321/421: People and Other Animals

Instructor: Tina Loo

Non-human creatures have been present at every major event in human history and we’re only coming to recognize that fact and grapple with its significance. In this course we’ll look at the ways the different humans have interacted with animals, both “wild” and “domestic” over time, focussing, for instance, on hunting, domesticating livestock, keeping pets, exploiting animal labour, studying animals scientifically, and displaying exotic and performing creatures. Our readings will touch on questions about how we find traces of the animal past, on animal agency and intelligence, and our moral obligations to animals.

HIST 321A/421A: History of Crime and Punishment

Instructor: Crystal Webster

This course will examine the formation of the carceral state from the rise of the penitentiary system to modern policing and the prison industrial complex. It will focus on the history of mass incarceration of African Americans as an aperture into the racialization of the criminal justice system and of the concepts of crime and punishment.

HIST 321D/421D: Global Histories, Locally

Instructor: Eagle Glassheim

Global histories have taken off in the past two decades, across a range of subdisciplines searching for subjects and narratives that transcend (or traverse) nation-states.  This course will draw on cases from commodity, environmental, migration, and imperial histories to examine some of the ways historians research and write histories of global circulations from local perspectives.

HIST 333: Third Year Honours

Instructor: TBA

HIST 433: Fourth Year Honours

Instructor: TBA