Thematic, geographic, and temporal descriptions of the History Department’s major and minor requirements are listed below. It will be observed that the categories of race, ethnicity, class, and gender do not appear in this list. Because these themes permeate human experience through space and time, all history courses deal with these issues in one way or another.

To declare a major concentration please use the form here.

To declare a minor concentration please use the form here. 

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Thematic

Empire, Nation, War
Courses in this category emphasize themes exploring the development, practices and relationships between the formation of empires and nations. Marked by historically distinct forms of political discourse and integration, the “modern nation” became the standard form of global political organization by the 20th century and was often formed or transformed through processes of colonialism, especially collective violence. For a full list of courses in this category, click here. 

 

Ideas, Science, Medicine
Courses in this category emphasize themes exploring intellectual history and the histories of science, medicine, and technology. Many courses in this category focus on the production of knowledge about the natural world, health and healing, and historicized examinations of terms like ‘science.’ Courses may also explore intellectual movements, thinkers from a range of social and political contexts, and the ways people have engaged with ideas about the universe, their own and different societies, and life and death. For a full list of courses in this category, click here.

Politics, Law, Social Justice

Courses in this category emphasize themes exploring politics, law, and social justice. In these classes, students explore how conflicts over who rules and who is ruled are waged through different ideas and institutions. These classes also examine how different historical actors and groups have envisioned and fought for justice. For a full list of courses in this category, click here. 

 

Sexuality, Body, Affect
Courses in this category emphasize themes exploring the role of the body in mediating, refracting, reifying, and challenging large-scale social, cultural, and political processes. Paying attention to the concept of embodiment, these courses contend, is essential for analyzing phenomena related to discipline, desire, memory, spirituality, and sociability, among many others. At the same time, these courses explore how the body and its practices are conceptualized by broader political, social, and cultural norms in different times and places. For a full list of courses in this category, click here.

Space, Place, Environment

Courses in this category explore the themes of space, place, and environment. In this context, they seek to illuminate the ways that both physical surroundings and cultural understandings of those environments impacted the lives and worldviews of people and societies in the past. These courses unpack how ideas about and relationships with the natural world and the built environment developed, and how they change over time. For a full list of courses in this category, click here.

 

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Geographic

The logics of place inform historical processes; historical processes in turn shape the emergence and interrelationship of larger spatial configurations transcending political divisions. Though such configurations are distinguished by their own historical logics, they are neither self-contained nor unchanging. Therefore, students majoring in history will be required to take courses in at least two (Track 2) or four (Track 1) of the following regional categories:

• Central & Eastern Europe
• Comparative
• East Asia
• Latin America & The Caribbean
• North Africa & The Middle East
• North America
• South Asia
• Southeast Asia
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• Western Europe

For a full list of courses designated by region, click here.

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Temporal

17th Century & Earlier
As a discipline concerned with change over time and thus with the provincialization of the present, historical analysis necessitates attention to times different from our own. As such, students majoring in history will be required to take at least one course focused on the 17th century or earlier. For a full list of courses designated by region, click here.

Both
Courses in this category span the 17th Century divide, featuring historical formations and processes unfolding across centuries and some cases millennia. They can therefore be used to meet the temporal requirement. For a full list of courses in this category, click here.