ENROLL

Annette R Igra

David G Tompkins

Amna Khalid

An introductory survey course to familiarize students with some of the key themes and debates in the historiography of modern India. Beginning with an overview of Mughal rule in India, the main focus of the course is the colonial period. The course ends with a discussion of 1947: the hour of independence as well as the creation of two new nation-states, India and Pakistan. Topics include Oriental Despotism, colonial rule, nationalism, communalism, gender, caste and race. No prior knowledge of South Asian History required.

Antony E Adler

A two-credit course in which students work with faculty oversight to complete a variety of public history projects with community partners. Students will work on a research project requiring them to identify and analyze primary sources, draw conclusions from the primary source research, and share their research with the appropriate audience in an appropriate form. We meet once a week at Carleton to ensure students maintain professional standards and strong relationships in their work. Potential projects include educational programming, historical society archival work, and a variety of local history opportunities. 

Extra Time Required

Adeeb Khalid

A survey of major political and social developments from the fifteenth century to the beginning of World War I. Topics include: state and society, the military and bureaucracy, religious minorities (Jews and Christians), and women in premodern Muslim societies; the encounter with modernity.

Amna Khalid

Thabiti C Willis

This course offers a broad historical overview of African men's and women's experiences as religious, political, and military leaders, as merchants and poets, and in agricultural and maritime industries in Arabia. Situated primarily in Bahrain, with travel to Oman, the course will examine longstanding historical, cultural, and commercial exchanges between Africa and the Gulf from medieval times to the present day. The course will question the ideologies that assume that Africa and Arabia represent racial and cultural difference.

Prerequisite: 100 or 200 level Africana Studies or History course and participation on OCS program

Participation in Africa and Arabia OCS Program

Thabiti C Willis

Through lectures, readings, and extensive site visits to museums and archaeological sites, this course examines the rich cultural heritage of East Africa and Arabia. Students will investigate Persian, Arab, Indian, and Islamic sites in Zanzibar, Oman, and Bahrain, reflecting on the deep influence of the Indian Ocean on the region’s historical trading systems and modern-day relations. The course also examines the influence of various European colonial powers during the era in which they ruled or wielded influence. 

Prerequisite: 100 or 200 level Africana Studies or History course and participation on OCS program

Participation in Africa and Ararbia OCS program

Thabiti C Willis

This course focuses on ethnographic research and writing with an emphasis on the practice of fieldwork. Students will conduct group research projects that include actively guiding and evaluating the work of their peers. The content of these projects will include maritime activities, health, music, economics, and heritage. Students will learn the benefits and challenges of examining oral tradition, oral history, poetry, visual art, material culture, and embodied practice. Service or experiential learning is another major point of emphasis. Students will develop their ability to question their knowledge, method, evidence, interpretation, experience, ethics, and power. 

Prerequisite: 100 or 200 level Africana Studies or History course and participation on OCS program

Participation in OCS Africa and Arabia Program

Antony E Adler

This course examines the growth of modern science since the Renaissance with an emphasis on the Scientific Revolution, the development of scientific methodology, and the emergence of new scientific disciplines. How might a history of science focused on scientific networks operating within society, rather than on individual scientists, change our understanding of “genius,” “progress,” and “scientific impartiality?” We will consider a range of scientific developments, treating science both as a body of knowledge and as a set of practices, and will gauge the extent to which our knowledge of the natural world is tied to who, when, and where such knowledge has been produced and circulated.

Adeeb Khalid

The Russian revolution of 1917 was one of the seminal events of the twentieth century. It transformed much beyond Russia itself. This course will take stock of the event and its legacy. What was the Russian revolution? What was its place in the history of revolutions? How did it impact the world? How was it seen by those who made it and those who witnessed it? How have these evaluations changed over time? What sense can we make of it in the year of its centenary? The revolution was both an inspiration (to many revolutionary and national-liberation movements) and used as a tale of caution and admonition (by adversaries of the Soviet Union). The readings will put the Russian revolution in the broadest perspective of the twentieth century and its contested evaluations, from within the Soviet Union and beyond, from its immediate aftermath, through World War II, the Cold War, to the post-Soviet period. The course is aimed at all students interested in the history of the twentieth century and of the idea of the revolution.

Prerequisite: One course in Modern European History or instructor consent