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Tuesday's meeting between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and the White House yielded “mixed outcomes” that fell short of a substantial reset of relations between the U.S. and Canada, says scholar Jon Parmenter.
The Cornell Center for Social Sciences has awarded spring Seed Grants and the inaugural Grant Preparation Funds to support impactful social science research. Faculty can now apply for up to $115,000 in funding, with the next deadline approaching on June 1.
The Long Island community of Massapequa is getting support from President Donald Trump for refusing to change its school mascot from Native American imagery, despite a state mandate, a fascinating example of self-indigenization says historian Jon Parmenter
Cornell experts Bryn Rosenfeld and David Silbey comment on a 72-hour ceasefire in Ukraine starting May 8, declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin to mark the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II.
HIST 2325 The Athenian Empire: Athenian History, 600 to 300 BCE (HST-AS)
Monday and Wednesday: 8:40-9:55
Professor Talia Prussin
This course focuses on the rise and fall of the Athenian empire, beginning with its roots in the late Archaic period, continuing through its height in the mid-fifth century BCE, and ending with the city’s transformation into an oligarchy under Alexander the Great’s Successors. Topics include the development of Athenian democracy, the institutions of the Athenian empire, and the experience of non-Athenians under Athenian rule. Attention will be paid to the particular strengths and weaknesses of the ancient evidence for Athenian history, introducing students to the use of Greek inscriptions, coins, and material culture in the writing of ancient history.
HIST 2369 Race, the Nation, & American Outdoor Recreation (also SHUM 2369) (HST-A., SCD-AS) (HNA)
Tuesday and Thursday: 1:25-2:40
Dr. Amanda Martin
This class will explore how access to the outdoors has been impacted by social inequalities related to race, class, and gender throughout U.S. history. The idea of “the outdoors” and its synonyms (whether “wilderness” or “nature”) has sustained lasting cultural resonance in the United States. Since the nineteenth century’s development of American Romanticism, “nature”—or the idea of a landscape not manipulated by humans—has become a powerful cultural symbol and one of the nation’s most cherished attributes. However, this course will examine how this strong reverence for natural places in the United States has been overlaid by racist ideologies.
As an avid reader of personal advice columns, historian Mary Beth Norton found the perfect confluence of interests in the Athenian Mercury, a London periodical published from 1691-97 that answered readers’ questions about love and marriage.
Cornell experts comment on the legacy of Pope Francis, who died on Monday, marking the end of a historic papacy.
On April 18, this collection of migrant experiences will be presented to the public in a daylong symposium at the A. D. White House.
THE HISTORY MAJOR REQUIREMENTS SHEET
STUDENT’S NAME: ___________________________________________________
Student’s CUID: ____________________________________________________
1) Students must complete (or be taking) two History courses before being admitted to the major.
2) Students must choose a History Advisor, meet and discuss a plan for successful completion of the major (fill out the chart below), and gain that advisor’s signature on both the Requirements Sheet and Application before submitting these to the main office.
3) 9* History Department courses must be completed with a C or better. Courses taken for entry can be counted towards the nine required.
*Many history courses will fulfill more than one of the following requirements. However, you must still take a total of NINE COURSES to complete the history major. FWS do not count towards major requirements.
4 courses from 5 world areas (HAN, HNA, HEU, HGS, HTR)
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3 courses in history before 1800
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At least 2 seminars, one of which MUST BE a 4000-level (taken on Cornell Campus)
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Other history courses
Course # _____ Title:______________________________________
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ADVISOR’S SIGNATURE: ________________________________________________________________
Date of Student and Advisor Meeting: __________________________________________________________
Columbia University's Khatchig Mouradian will give a lecture, “Ethnic Cleansing in the Long 19th Century: The Native American, Circassian, and Armenian Cases,” on April 24.
"My experiences with exploration pushed me to uncover new interests."
The drills, in the waters and airspace around Taiwan, serve three military purposes, says professor David Silbey.
The award carries a stipend of $300,000; Strauss will receive the award at a ceremony on May 29 in Washington, D.C.
Professor Jon Parmenter says Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision to call the election looks like a smart decision.
Jingya Guo, a doctoral candidate in history, studies how historical actors contested and reconfigured the demarcation between pathology and health for female bodies in China.
HIST 4931 Vitality and Power in China (also ASIAN 4429, BSOC 4911, CAPS 4931, RELST 4931, STS 4911) (HST-AS, SCD-AS) (HPE, HAN)
Tuesday: 2:00-4:30 plus Independent Research
Professor TJ Hinrichs
Chinese discourses have long linked the circulation of cosmic energies, political power, and bodily vitalities. In these models political order, spiritual cultivation, and health are achieved and enhanced through harmonizing these flows across the levels of Heaven-and-Earth, state, and humankind. It is when these movements are blocked or out of synchrony that we find disordered climates, societies, and illness. In this course, we will examine the historical emergence and development of these models of politically resonant persons and bodily centered polities, reading across primary texts in translation from these otherwise often separated fields. For alternate frameworks of analysis as well as for comparative perspectives, we will also examine theories of power and embodiment from other cultures, including recent scholarship in anthropology and critical theory.
HIST 4672 Europe in Flames: World War II and its Aftermath (also JWST 4672) (GLC-AS, HST-AS) (HEU)
Tuesday: 2:00-4:30 plus Independent Research
Professor Cristina Florea
One of the most spectacular conflagrations in global history, World War II surpassed all previous conflicts in violence, cruelty, and sheer contempt for human life. It definitely changed the shape of Europe, arguably marking the "end of the European era." Was the Second World War a conflict of ideologies or a war of empires? What was the relationship between the theaters of war (Western and Eastern) and the home fronts? In this seminar, we will examine the war's major turning points on the European theater in order to understand not only the nature of this conflict, but also the forces that made it possible. We will look closely at the two superpowers that clashed on the continent, turning Europe into a veritable inferno for the people caught in between. What kinds of societies were Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia? How did the war affect them and their regimes? We will also survey the spaces in between to discover why these two vast empires competed so ruthlessly over them. We will find out how the populations caught between these two giants made ends meet, both by cooperating and by resisting the great powers. Although some knowledge of what was going on at the front will be helpful, this class is not a course in military history. As a result, it focuses primarily on the social and cultural dimensions of war - which it explores through a variety of sources, including fiction, memoirs, and films. Topics include the occupation and destruction of Poland; the fall of France; Hitler's Europe and the Holocaust; resistance and collaboration with Nazi occupation forces across Europe; the Soviet experience of war; as well as the effect of war on family life, politics, and societies in Europe. Finally, the course will consider the aftermath of was: attempts to reconstruct and deal with legacies of war, which continued shaping European societies for decades to come.
HIST 4204 Early American History through Film, ca. 1500-1800 (also AMST 4205) (HST-AS) (HPE, HNA)
Thursday: 2:00-4:30 plus Independent Research
Professor Casey Schmitt
While the purpose of Hollywood films is to entertain, when those films are set in the past, they offer a critical lens onto how and why we remember and memorialize certain historical events. This course analyzes a series of films set in colonial North America and the Atlantic world in order to ask bigger questions about the meaning of our colonial past to the ways in which we think about the present. During the course, we will read and discuss articles and books in order to learn about the time periods and contexts presented in several different films, and we will use that knowledge to understand what each filmmaker chose to include or exclude and why, paying specific attention to representations of race, gender, and class. Over the course of the semester, we will also meet virtually with various historians who have worked in the film industry to discuss their experiences making academic history relevant for Hollywood. This course will provide students with a clear understanding of specific times and places in early American history, while also encouraging them to think about when, why, and how that past remains relevant (or irrelevant) today.
HIST 3740 America Becomes Modern: The Gilded Age and Progressive Era (also AMST 3744) (HST-AS) (HNA)
Tuesday and Thursday: 2:55-4:10
Professor Lawrence Glickman
“America Becomes Modern” offers an upper-level survey of major themes in American history between 1877 and 1917. The course will have a lecture/discussion format; student participation is highly valued and encouraged. The last two decades of the 19th century and the first two of the twentieth marked an abrupt shift in the life experiences of the American people. Daily life changed radically from 1877-1920, as the agrarian republic gave way to an urbanizing consumer society. Debates about “progress” characterized the period, as new technologies, new peoples, new forms of politics and culture, and new patterns of living transformed the United States. This course will explore the political, economic, diplomatic and cultural history of the Gilded age and Progressive eras, focusing on the ways American tried to make sense of, to order, to moralize and to shape rapid change.
HIST 2811 Science, Nature, and Knowledge: 1500-1800 (also STS 2810) (HST-AS)(HPE, HEU)
Monday and Wednesday: 10:10-11:25
Professor Jeremy Schneider
This course investigates the history of science in early modern Europe (ca. 1500 to 1800), a period in which new understandings of the natural world emerged while traditional forms of knowledge fell into crisis. Students will examine texts and images, objects and instruments from the history of science as a lens onto the intellectual, religious, and political transformations of the period. Why did our knowledge of nature witness profound changes? How was science carried out and by whom? Where did scientific authority serve the interests of colonial empires? Key themes include the study of the earth, climate, and environment; the circulation and censorship of scientific knowledge; and the relationship of ancient thought to modern experiment and observation.
HIST 2441 Truths: A History from Antiquity to the Modern ((ETM-AS, HST-AS) (HPE, HEU)
Monday and Wednesday: 2:30-4:10
Professor Olga Litvak and Professor Jeremy Schneider
Where have humans found truth? Will the truths we uphold today remain true tomorrow? Leaning on discussion and close reading of texts, this seminar asks students to think about how truth becomes history and how historically-situated concepts, values and norms become true. Examining the ways in which thinkers and writers from a variety of different perspectives have conceived what truth is (and isn’t), the class will focus on notions of truth and falsehood in religion, science, philosophy, and literature. Specific themes for consideration and discussion will include: the role of divinity in underwriting truth claims; the place of truth-standards in the study of nature and the development of new technology; the moralization of truth and lies; the disillusionment with absolutes and the increasing “relativization” of truth in the modern age.
HIST 2064 Starting Your Own Country: From Utopia to the Network State (ALC-AS, HST-AS) (HTR)
Monday and Wednesday: 2:55-4:10 plus Independent Research
Professor Raymond Craib
Ever thought about starting your own country? You’re not alone. The past is filled with examples of new worlds, both imagined and attempted: from More’s Utopia to Gregor MacGregor’s Poyais to the Bates family’s Sealand. Our present too is replete with various schemes to create kinds of state-like communities: from autonomous territories in resistance to libertarian seasteads and cloud-based Network states designed around blockchain and cryptocurrencies. This class covers some 500 years of history and literature to examine the political and social foundations out of which such efforts arose; their philosophical underpinnings; their life-spans in terms of both real life existence and long-term influence; and changing technological and social possibilities for new countries now.
This semester, visiting A.D. White Professors-at-Large will explore themes of democracy, reparatory justice and Latin American narratives during public talks.
12 faculty members from seven colleges have been named 2025-26 Faculty Fellows with the Cornell Center for Social Sciences.
It wasn’t easy being in uniform during the Vietnam War era, but military service made Don Stanton '72 a better student—and a better man, he writes in a Chime In essay for Cornellians
On he third anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Cornell University experts discuss sanctions and the state of US and European support for Ukraine.
The U.S. president's collective actions against Canada have needlessly harmed a long-cherished and close relationship says Jon Parmenter, a professor of North American history.
Fellows will pursue research in the sciences, social sciences and humanities.
"Sanctuary from the Storm: Making (My) Room with The Torkelsons," will explore Sheppard’s fondness for the 1990s television show and what the show’s representation of home spaces can tell us about the way television influences living practices.
This year's Cornell Concerto competition honored three students as winners.
Those are the gifts that fate gave Ezra Cornell, per one historian. Here’s a look at his life—from humble beginnings to great wealth.
The centerpiece is a wall-size homage to three of the first women hired and McGraw itself, drawn by Prof. Paraska Tolan-Szkilnik.
Carter's presidency ultimately set in motion many of the trends that have shaped the world we live in today, says Ruth Lawlor, assistant professor at Cornell University and historian of American foreign relations.
Cornell government and history scholars provide perspective on the end of 14 years of civil war and 24 years of the Assad dictatorship.
Jeremy Peschard Pórtela studies the histories of Latinos, immigration and mental health under the guidance of Prof. Maria Cristina Garcia.
The Biden White House is likely trying to give Ukraine everything it can before the administration changes, says military historian David Silbey.
This fall, Jake Anbinder, a historian with an interest in cities and strong ties to public policy, presented two conference papers elaborating on his award-winning book project.
During “Beyond 2024: Envisioning Just Futures and Equitable Democracy,” faculty and students from across the university will come together to creatively showcase research and art, build community and be inspired to imagine a better future.
The Nov. 2 conference will focus on an interdisciplinary approach.
A year after former students held a conference in NYC that paid tribute to a giant in the field of U.S. history, Cornell University Press has published a companion volume to the event.
Cornell military expert says North Korea sending troops to Russia for for eventual deployment in Ukraine, if true, amounts to more of a political statement, than a military one.
Scheduled for Oct. 30, 2024 at 5 p.m. in Ives Hall, Room 305. The event was free, open to the public, and livestream was available.
This month’s titles, featured in Cornellians, include "Invisible Labor: The Untold Story of the Cesarean Section" by A&S alum Rachel Somerstein ’04.
HIST 4963 China's Early Modern (also ASIAN 4461, CAPS 4963, MEDVL 4963) (HAN)
Thursday: 2:00-4:30 plus Independent Research
Professor TJ Hinrichs
Theories of modernization have inspired, informed, and plagued histories of middle and late imperial China. For the Song-Qing eras (roughly 10th-19th centuries), comparative studies have variously found and sought to explain modernization emerging earlier than in Europe, an absence of modernization, or alternative paths of modernization. Regional models have argued for pan-East Asian systems and patterns of modernization. Global models have argued that China had a vital role in European development as a provenance of modernizing institutions and ideas, as a source of exploited resources, or otherwise as an integral part of global systems. In this course we explore these historiographical debates and develop critical perspectives, including approaches to escaping Eurocentric and teleological frameworks.
HIST 4910 Approaches to Medieval Violence (Also MEDVL 4910) (HST-AS) (HPE, HEU)
Tuesday and Thursday: 1:25-2:40 plus Independent Research
Professor Oren Falk
'Violence' has become an unavoidable - and urgently troubling - buzzword in contemporary Western culture. We worry about its manifestations and representations in our own civilization, we scan foreign societies with which we interact for any sign of it, we fantasize about consummating it or construct our utopias around its absence. This course is intended as an opportunity for students working on a variety of topics, periods and areas in premodern Europe to investigate its relevance to their own studies. Through an examination of readings on violence in particular historical contexts, from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern period, we will seek to elicit reflection on what is meant by the concept, to prompt consideration of distinctions among forms of violence, and to sample a variety of analytical approaches and tools.
HIST 4629 The Age of Revolution in Europe & the Caribbean: 1789 to 1825 (HST-AS) (HEU)
Tuesday: 2:00-4:30 plus Independent Research
Professor Paul Friedland
A wave of revolutions swept through Europe and the Caribbean, beginning with the French Revolution (1789-1815) and the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), and eventually upending traditional laws and societies on both sides of the Atlantic. In the first part of the semester, we will read and discuss books related to these revolutions, and in the second part, students will undertake original research in preparation for writing a substantial research paper related to the theme of the class: either an in-depth study of one revolution or a comparative exploration of revolutionary movements.
HIST 4422 Oral History: Theory, Practice, and Method (GLC-AS, HST-AS) (HTR)
Monday: 2:00-4:30 plus Independent Research
Professor Rachel Sandwell
This course explores the method of oral history in theory and practice, across different topics, contexts, and geographic/national terrains. It will consider questions like: what sorts of insights do oral histories enable? How can oral history as a method supplement, destabilize, and enrich existing historical accounts? What are the challenges and risks of oral histories, and how can historians mitigate those risks? What theoretical assumptions underlie oral historical work? Are certain topics more appropriate than others to oral historical investigations, and if so, why? We will explore these questions through reading a wide range of texts, hearing from oral historians about their work, and workshopping methods in class, as well as through independent research.
HIST 4277 Modern European Cultural-Intellectual History through Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project (ALC-AS, HST-AS) (HEU)
Tuesday: 2:00-4:30 plus Independent Research
Professor Claudia Verhoeven
The premise of this senior seminar in European cultural-intellectual history is that we can learn some of the most crucial aspects of the historian’s craft through just one book: Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project. Benjamin is normally seen as a philosopher, cultural critic, literary critic, art historian, media theorist, essayist, and translator, but he was one of the most original and influential historical thinkers of the modern era, and the Arcades Project is one of the key texts of 20th-century European intellectual history. Studying this book will teach you modern European history (esp. late 18th – early 20th c.), but also how to read, research, and write history more creatively. The structure of the seminar is straightforward: we will make our way through the Arcades Project’s “convolutes,” which means we will cover topics such as architecture, photography, fashion, poetry, prostitution, capitalism, communism, conspiracy, revolution, Marx, Nietzsche, modernity, and more, like boredom for example, or theories of progress and knowledge. Your research projects will take shape as you learn to recognize and make connections between the great variety of ideas and sources united in this magisterial and magical text.
HIST 3801 War and Revolution in 20th Century Latino History (also AMST 3831, LATA 3801, LSP 3801) (GLC-AS, HST-AS) (HNA)
Tuesday and Thursday: 1:25-2:40
Professor Maria Cristina Garcia
This course examines war and revolution as drivers of migration from Latin America and the Spanish Caribbean to the United States and Canada. From the War of 1898 to the wars in Central America, war and revolution have displaced millions of people, prompting internal and cross-border migration. This history underscores how migration is multicausal—that is, produced by a wide and complex range of intersecting drivers. War and revolution disrupt livelihoods, produce scarcity, and create the insecurity that makes it impossible to exercise a basic human right to stay home. The course also examines how Latinos have become actors in U.S. wars and interventions in their countries of ancestry. There are no prerequisites for the course but HIST 1802 is strongly recommended.