Department of History

Overview of Courses

Breadcrumb

Overview of Courses

A brief guide to some of the history department’s course offerings for the academic year.

For more detailed information about each course offered this term, see Courses@Brown.

History 150s and Gateway Intro Lectures

History 0150s are thematic courses on topics that cut across time and space and are open to all Brown undergraduates. They introduce students to methods of historical analysis, interpretation, and argument. Gateway courses are designed to offer students an introduction to problems and questions within a particular geography and generally across a shorter time period.

150 Courses

None Offered

 

Gateway Intro Lecture Courses

Course Number Course Title Schedule Instructor
HIST 0233 Colonial Latin America T, Th 9-10:20am Jeremy Mumford
HIST 0253A Colonial America: A Global History M, W, F 12-12:50pm Linford Fisher
HIST 0270A From Fire Wielders to Empire Builders: Human Impact on the Global Environment before 1492 M, W, F 11-11:50am Brian Lander
RELS 0090M Religion Violence and Media Mon 3-5:30pm Nancy Khalek

150 Courses

None Offered

 

Gateway Intro Lecture Courses

Course Number Course Title Schedule Instructor
HIST 0234 Modern Latin America M, W, F 11-11:50am Daniel Rodriguez
HIST 0256 Mexican American History T, Th 10:30-11:50pm Mark Ocegueda
HIST 0286B History of Medicine II: The Development of Scientific Medicine in Europe and the World M, W, F 9-9:50am Harold Cook

First-Year and Second-Year Seminars

History Department first-year seminars (FYS) and second-year seminars (SYS) (restricted to first-years and sophomores) provide first-years and sophomores an introduction to a topic and to historical methods in a small class setting. 

First Year Seminars

Course Number Course Title Schedule Instructor
HIST 0552A A Textile History of Atlantic Slavery M 3-5:30pm Seth Rockman
HIST 0558C Latinx Social Movement History M 3-5:30pm Mark Ocegueda
HIST 0577B The US-Mexico Border and Borderlands: A Bilingual English-Spanish Seminar W 3-5:30pm Evelyn Hu-DeHart
HIST 0510B History of Tokyo W 3-5:30pm Kerry Smith
HIST 0580M The Age of Revolutions, 1760-1824 F 3-5:30pm Jeremy Mumford
Course Number Course Title Schedule Instructor
HIST 0654A Welfare States and a History of Modern Life W 3-5:30pm Robert Self

Second-Year Seminars

Second-Year Seminars

Course Number Course Title Schedule Instructor
HIST 0682E Lobsters, Thylacines, and Bacteria: An Introduction to Animal Histories T 4-6:30pm Sarah Christensen

Second-Year Seminars

Course Number Course Title Schedule Instructor
HIST 0654A Welfare States and a History of Modern Life W 3-5:30pm Robert Self

Other Lecture Courses

History lecture courses address topics of broad interest chronologically, geographically and thematically defined. These courses are designed for History concentrators and non-concentrators alike. Our courses over 1000 are organized geographically as follows:

  • 1000-1099 courses on Africa
  • 1100-1199 courses on East Asia
  • 1200-1299 courses on Europe
  • 1300-1399 courses on Latin America
  • 1400-1499 courses on Middle East
  • 1500-1599 courses on North America
  • 1600-1699 courses on South Asia
  • 1700-1799 Global courses
  • 1800-1899 Thematic courses
Course Number Coures Title Schedule Instructor
HIST 1112 China's Early Modern Empires T, Th 10:30-11:50am Cynthia Brokaw
HIST 1200C History of Greece: From Alexander the Great to the Roman Conquest T, Th 1-2:20pm Kenneth Sacks
HIST 1825F Nature, Knowledge, Power in Early Modern Europe M, W, F 10-10:50am Tara Nummedal
HIST 1931L Women, Gender and Feminism in Early Modern Europe T, Th 1-2:20pm Caroline Castiglione
HIST 1121 The Modern Chinese Nation: An Idea and Its Limits M, W, F 11-11:50am Rebecca Nedostup
HIST 1620 Resisting Empire: Gandhi and the Making of Modern South Asia T, Th 10:30-11:50am Vazira Zamindar
ETHN 1750D Transpacific Asian American Studies M, W 8:30-9:50am Evelyn Hu-Dehart
HIST 1531 Movement Politics in Modern America M, W 8:30-9:50am Robert Self
Course Number Course Title Schedule Instructor
HIST 1031 Southern Africa before Segregation: A History From the Earliest Times to 1885 T, Th 2:30-3:50pm Nancy Jacobs
HIST 1141 Japan in the Age of the Samurai M, W, F 11-11:50am Kerry Smith
HIST 1211 Crusaders and Cathedrals, Deviants and Dominance: Europe in the High Middle Ages T, Th 9-10:20am Amy Remensnyder
HIST 1262M Truth on Trial T, Th 2:30-3:50pm Caroline Castiglione
HIST 1266D British History, 1660-1800 M, W, F 2-2:50pm Tim Harris
HIST 1501 The American Revolution M, W, F 10-10:50am

Seth Rockman/Philip Gould
HIST 1512 First Nations: The People and Cultures of Native North America to 1800 M, W, F 12-12:50pm Linford Fisher
HIST 1080 Humanitarianism and Conflict in Africa T, Thu 1-2:20pm Jennifer Johnson
HIST 1457 History of the Palestinians T, Thu 10:30-11:50am Beshara Doumani
HIST 1554 American Empire Since 1890 M, W, F 2-2:50pm Naoko Shibusawa
HIST 1830M From Medieval Bedlam to Prozac Nation: Intimate Histories of Psychiatry and Self T, Thu 10:30-11:50am Jennifer Lambe
HIST 1141 Japan in the Age of the Samurai M, W, F 11-11:50am Kerry Smith

Capstone Seminars

All concentrators must complete at least one capstone seminar (HIST 1960s & HIST 1970s series courses and selected HIST 1980 courses). These seminars are designed to serve as an intellectual culmination of the concentration. They provide students with an opportunity to delve deeply into a historical problem and to write a major research and/or analytical paper which serves as a capstone experience. Ideally, they will be taken in the field of focus and during the student’s junior or senior year. Students considering writing a senior honors thesis are advised to take a capstone in their junior year. These seminars are designed to serve as an intellectual culmination of the concentration. First-Year students are not advised to take these courses and only rarely are sophomores allowed to enroll.

Course Number Course Title Schedule Instructor
HIST 1931L Women, Gender and Feminism in Early Modern Europe T, Th 1pm-2:20pm Caroline Castiglione
HIST 1961D Heaven Above, Suzhou and Hangzhou Below: Urban Culture in Early Modern China W 3-5:30pm Cynthia Brokaw
HIST 1963Q Sex, Power, and God: A Medieval Perspective M 3-5:30pm Amy Remensnyder
HIST 1964F Early Modern Ireland M 3-5:30pm Timothy Harris
ENVS 1905 Thinking with the Elements: Environmental Theories and Praxis M 3-5:30pm Bathsheba Demuth
HIST 1980R Urban Schools in Historical Perspective (EDUC 1620) W 3-5:30pm Tracy Steffes
HIST 1956A Thinking Historically: A History of History Writing Thu 4-6:30pm Kenneth Sacks
HIST 1968A Approaches to the Middle East W 3-5:30pm Beshara Doumani
HIST 1972A American Legal History, 1760-1920 Fri 3-5:30pm Michael Vorenberg
HIST 1974D River Histories: Fishes, Floods and the Transformation of Freshwater Ecosystems Fri 3-5:30pm Brian Lander
HIST 1982A Narrating the Anthropocene Th 4-6:30pm Bathsheba Demuth
Course Number Course Title Schedule Instructor
HIST 1964D Women in Early Modern England M 3-5:30pm Timothy Harris
HIST 1964K Descartes' World M 3-5:30pm Harold Cook
HIST 1974M Early Modern Globalization Thu 4-6:30pm Adam Teller
HIST 1930G Black Freedom Struggle Since 1945 T Th 1pm-2:20pm Françoise Hamlin
HIST 1967L Politics and Culture Under The Brazilian Military Dictatorship, 1964-1985 W 3-5:30pm James Green
HIST 1969A Israel-Palestine: Lands and Peoples I Thu 4-6:30pm Omer Bartov
HIST 1972J Racial Capitalism and U.S. Liberal Empire M 3-5:30pm Naoko Shibusawa
HIST 1974M Early Modern Globalization Th 4-6:30pm Adam Teller
HIST 1977I Gender, Race, and Medicine in the Americas Th 4-6:30pm Daniel Rodriguez
HIST 1976C Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Environmental Histories of Non-Human Actors W 3-5:30pm Nancy Jacobs
HIST 1976R Histories of the Future W 3-5:30pm Kerry Smith

Honors Courses

Honors courses are a three-part series. They are all offered each semester annually.

Learn more about the honors programs

HIST 1992 | History Honors Workshop for Prospective Thesis Writers

Recommended for all those thinking about researching and writing a senior thesis. Must have an A- average in history courses to be considered for the History Honors Program. Completion of a thesis prospectus that receives an A or A- is admitted into the History Honors Program.

HIST 1993 | History Honors Workshop for Thesis Writers

Limited to seniors and juniors who have been admitted to the History Honors Program. First semester of writing the honors thesis.

HIST 1994 | History Honors Workshop for Thesis Writers

Limited to seniors and juniors who have been admitted to the History Honors Program. Second semester of writing the honors thesis.

Additional Course Information

Race, Power, and Privilege Courses

In their content and their objectives, Race, Power, and Privilege (RPP) courses examine issues of structural inequality, racial formations and/or disparities, and systems of power within a complex, pluralistic world

Writing Designated Courses

The History Department offers a wide variety of courses that can fulfill the College's Writing Designated (WRIT) requirement.