HIST 2640 Introduction to Asian American History

HIST 2640 Introduction to Asian American History (also AAS 2130, AMST 2640) (HA-AS) (SCD-AS) (HNA)

Tuesday and Thursday: 11:40-12:55 plus discussions

Professor Derek Chang

An introductory history of Chinese, Japanese, Asian Indians, Filipinos, and Koreans in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1990s. Major themes include racism and resistance, labor migration, community formation, imperialism, and struggles for equality.

HIST 2969 The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire

HIST 2969 The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire (HST-AS)(GLC-AS) (HEU)

Tuesday and Thursday: 11:40-12:55

Professor Cristina Florea

This course surveys the history of the world's first socialist society from its unlikely beginnings in 1917 to its unexpected demise in 1991. Traditional topics such as the origins of the revolutions of 1917, Stalin's Terror, WW II, Khrushchev's Thaw, etc., will be covered, but lectures will emphasize the interaction between the political, socio-economic, and especially the cultural spheres. A good deal of the materials we will study in this course will be drawn from the realm of literature, cinema, and art.

HIST 3430 History of the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction

HIST 3430 History of the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction (also AMST 3430) (HB) (HA-AS, HST-AS, SCD-AS) (HNA)

Tuesday and Thursday: 1:25-2:40 plus Independent Research

Professor Edward Baptist

A survey of the turning point of US. history: The Civil War (1861-1865) and its aftermath, Reconstruction (1865-1877). Not simply a history of the four years of battles, the course covers nearly forty years, from the end of the Mexican War in 1848 through the political deals made by candidate Rutherford Hayes in 1877 that weakened Reconstruction. The class examines this critical period from a variety of angles and perspectives, from diplomacy and law to race and gender, and from presidential elections to the impact of Reconstruction on the West and the North. And yes, a few battles.

HIST 3525 Life and Death in China Under Mao

HIST 3525 Life and Death in China Under Mao (also CAPS 3525) (HST-AS)(HAN)

Tuesday and Thursday: 10:10-11:25 plus Independent Research

Professor Peidong Sun

How to define and interpret the human condition in China under Mao’s ruling (1949-1976)? What was human resilience in the face of power? How did Chinese people constantly find ways to re-organize their lives in a pragmatic way? How to evaluate the human cost of institutional arrangements? In this undergraduate course, we will use first-hand resources and case studies to closely analyze life and death in the Mao Era. Reading the lived experiences of five social classes, such as industrial capitalists, workers, peasants, cadres, and intellectuals, in those successively political movements after 1949, students will gain an understanding of how the Chinese navigated their lives in difficult times. They might be a senior partner for Shell in Shanghai, a hearted Christian and wife, an outspoken intellectual who was persecuted over years, and a former hard laborer who is today one of Asia's best-known financiers or women from China's countryside and so forth. The course will shed light on the interrelations between institutional frames, individual identity, gender and revolutionary politics in the Mao Era and will highlight the many different experiences of life and death in Mao’s China, in terms of class, gender, generation.

Class Roster: https://classes.cornell.edu/browse/roster/FA22/class/HIST/3525

HIST 3950 Monsoon Kingdoms: Pre-Modern Southeast Asian History

Monsoon Kingdoms: Pre-Modern Southeast Asian History (also ASIAN 3397) (HST-AS) (EC-SAP, EC-SEAP) (HPE, HAN)

Tuesday and Thursday: 10:10-11:25

Professor Eric Tagliacozzo

This course examines Southeast Asia’s history from earliest times up until the mid-eighteenth century. The genesis of traditional kingdoms, the role of monumental architecture (such as Angkor in Cambodia and Borobodur in Indonesia), and the forging of maritime trade links across the region are all covered. Religion – both indigenous to Southeast Asia and the great imports of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam – are also surveyed in the various pre-modern polities that dotted Southeast Asia. This course questions the region’s early connections with China, India, and Arabia, and asks what is indigenous about Southeast Asia’s history, and what has been borrowed over the centuries. Open to undergraduates, both major and non-majors in History, and to graduates, though with separate requirements.

HIST 4041 Atlantic Commodities

HIST 4041 Atlantic Commodities (GLC-AS, HST-AS) (HGS)

Wednesday: 2:00-4:30 plus Independent Research

Professor Ernesto Bassi

Since Columbus’s arrival to the Americas, a number of commodities have bound together Europe, Africa, and the Americas, drastically changing the lives of many people on both sides of the Atlantic. Covering nearly five hundred years of history, this seminar invites students to explore the history of the Atlantic World through the “lives” of commodities such as gold, silver, sugar, cacao, tobacco, cotton, cochineal, indigo, bananas, and more. Tracing commodities from their production site to the moment of consumption, students will be able to understand the possibilities that the commodity-chain approach offers to historical research. As part of this seminar students will write a research paper (using primary sources) that will explain the commodity chain of a specific commodity.

HIST 4075 Fashion and Politics in Twentieth-Century China

HIST 4075 Fashion and Politics in Twentieth-Century China (also CAPS 4075) (GB) (HA-AS, HST-AS) (HAN)

Tuesday: 8:30-11:00am

Professor Peidong Sun

Through readings and discussions, this seminar will take multiple approaches to explore history, politics and society in 20th century China from the perspective of fashion. How to define politics from the dimension of fashion? What’s a politicized fashion? How did fashion reflect the power structure? How did fashion become a way of obedience and resistance?

HIST 4203 Contesting Votes: Democracy and Citizenship throughout U.S. History

HIST 4203 Contesting Votes: Democracy and Citizenship throughout U.S. History (also AMST 4203) (HA-AS, HST-AS, SCD-AS) (HNA)

Tuesday: 2:00-4:30

Professor Julily Kohler-Hausmann

This advanced seminar traces transformations in citizenship and the franchise throughout U.S. history. Through readings, frequent short writings, discussion, and a final paper, the class examines the struggles over who can claim full citizenship and legitimate voice in the political community. It examines the divergent, often clashing, visions of legitimate democratic rule, focusing particularly on the debates over who should vote and on what terms. We examine the dynamics that have shaped the boundaries of citizenship and hierarchies within it, paying attention to changes in the civic status of Native Americans, property-less white men, paupers, women, African Americans, various immigrant groups, residents of U.S. colonies, felons, and people with intellectual disabilities. A significant portion of the class focuses on debates about U.S. democracy in the decades after the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

HIST 4543 State and Society in the Late Ottoman Empire

HIST 4543 State and Society in the Late Ottoman Empire (also NES 4543) (GHB) (HA-AS) (HGS)

Wednesday: 9:05-11:00

Professor Mostafa Minawi

This seminar will examine the relationship between the imperial, provincial, and local state apparatuses and the various sections of society as the Ottoman Empire underwent a steady transition from the so-called Ancient Régime through the constructs of the so-called modern state. This course will look at specific case studies from across the empire, examining the similarities and difference, across provinces, and wherever possible, across imperial domains. From a theoretical point of view, the discussion will not simply focus on how the relationship between state and society changed, but will also investigate the construct of the separation of state and society conceptually, over the period of 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.

Amid refugee announcement, Biden seeks to relieve a backlogged asylum system

Cristina Maria Garcia, professor of history and Latino studies, comments on President Biden’s announcement that the U.S. will admit 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.

Recent grads on a mission to support Ukraine

Mark Kreynovich ’19, who was born in Ukraine, and Dillon Carroll ’20 are bringing medical and other supplies to Ukraine, translating, and coordinating housing for refugees.

Active Learning Initiative awards 5 new grants

The Active Learning Initiative has announced its Phase IV grants. The winning proposals, from Classics, Government, History, the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, included collaborations that extend across Cornell.

Ten A&S faculty honored with endowed professorships

These professorships continue the College’s priority to recognize faculty excellence and accomplishments.

First group of Zhu Fellows named

Four doctoral students studying fields in the College of Arts & Sciences are the inaugural recipients of the Zhu Family Graduate Fellowships in the Humanities.

Ask our ambassadors: Choosing a major

Before you choose a major, you'll take classes across a broad array of A&S disciplines.

Opinion: Putin knows that controlling history is the key to total power

Cristina Florea, assistant professor of history writes that Russia’s assault on Ukraine could severely damage the historical record of iconic physical structures, archives and documents.

Russia’s role in U.N. questioned amid war in Ukraine, atrocities

Historian Cristina Florea comments on the United Nations General Assembly vote on expelling Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council.

John F. Kennedy Award recipient reimagines public safety

An Army combat medic veteran from a justice-involved family, Hodges has dedicated his academic study, campus leadership and social justice advocacy to understanding and offering alternatives to the current model of policing.