Undergraduate Course Listing

Following upon the successes of the Scientific Revolution, Europe transformed radically during the eighteenth century. This course explores the impact of rapid urbanization, exploding literacy, and the application of science to social issues like gender relations, sexuality, poverty, health care, and race, to chart Europe's development as it raced towards the era of democratic revolution. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Provides an introductory survey of French colonialism in North America, from the first French incursions on the continent to the cession of its colonies to Britain in 1763. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Cross-listed: CAST-2021H

Medieval Europe from the birth of Christianity and collapse of the Roman Empire in the West through the establishment of "barbarian" kingdoms, survival and transformation of the Eastern Roman Empire, spread of Islam, Carolingian Renaissance, ninth- and tenth-century invasions, and Europe's gradual recovery and reorganization around the year 1000. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits or permission of the chair. Equivalent to AHCL 2051H.

Cross-listed: AGRS-2051H

Popularly associated with castles, cathedrals, crusades, and valiant knights, this period also saw the rapid development of powerful centralized governments, cities, international trade networks, technological innovation, universities, improved literacy, book production, art and architecture, church reform, social intolerance, and a new focus on the individual and individual emotion. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Explores how war has shaped and been shaped by society in the period before 1800. Specific case studies are chosen by the instructor. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

An introduction to historiography between Archaic Greece and the late Roman Empire, examining both the history of this period and its construction by ancient writers. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits. Not open to students with credit for AHCL 2102H or 2105H.Equivalent to AHCL 2103H.

Cross-listed: AGRS-2103H

Explores the history of the United States from precontact and early European settlement in the 1600s to civil war and reconstruction in the second half of the 1800s. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits or permission of the chair. Not open to students with credit for HIST 2110Y.

A study of Indigenous involvement in the fur trade and imperial politics of the eighteenth century, the development of European "civilizing" policies, and the growth and ideology of the modern Indigenous political movement. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits, including 1.0 CAST, HIST, and/or INDG credit at the 1000 level with a minimum of 60%. Not open to students with credit for CAST-HIST-INDG 2255Y.

Cross-listed: CAST-2256H, INDG-2256H

Explores the 1960s, a decade of shifting meanings of "Canadian." Topics may include fiscal policy, youth cultures, the women's movement, racial identity, sex scandals and politics, upheavals, nationalism in Quebec, and Indigenous rights. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits.

Cross-listed: CAST-2285H, POST-2285H

Explores Indigenous histories and grounding history in lands, knowledges, languages, and genders. Examines methodologies such as oral narratives, orality, and land-based research along with methods for gathering knowledge related to Indigenous histories. Explores scholarly positionality as historians, research ethics, and the various formats being used to articulate Indigenous histories. Recommended prerequisite: INDG 1001H. Not open to students with credit for INDG 2305Y or 4205Y.

Cross-listed: INDG-2306H

This course meets the Indigenous Course Requirement.

Explores the multifaceted encounters that resulted from European colonialism. The focus of the course is on the lives and experiences of Indigenous peoples in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Pacific basin to develop a comprehensive understanding of colonialism and resistance on a global scale. Prerequisite: INDG 2306H or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for INDG-HIST 2305Y.

Cross-listed: INDG-2307H

This course meets the Indigenous Course Requirement.

Topics include Indigenous resistance, colonial domination, slavery, independence, neo-colonialism, nation building, dictatorship, and revolutionary change. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits or permission of the chair. Equivalent to IDST 2471H.

Cross-listed: GDST-2471H

Did medieval peasants, fifth-century Buddhists, and nineteenth-century coal barons have a definition of happiness? This course surveys how humans have defined and pursued happiness from ancient Greece to the present day, and considers how relative wealth, race, and inequality affect humans' pursuit of the good life. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Medicine is simultaneously scientific and social. What gets defined as a disease? Who heals? Who can access health care? Such questions reveal how political, cultural, and economic forces have shaped medicine throughout history. We explore topics highlighting this interaction between the scientific and the social in a variety of historical contexts. Prerequisite: 2.5 university credits or permission of the chair.

Cross-listed: SOCI-2601H

Surveys the social, cultural, institutional, and intellectual histories shaping Western world attitudes about the mind and brain, while exploring the histories of madness, mental deficiencies, insanity, and mental health during the period when psychiatry and psychology emerged as formal scientific disciplines. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Cross-listed: PSYC-2621H

An overview of the history of feminist ideas, strategies, and actions in Canada. We explore the diversity and distinctiveness of Canadian feminism at different historical moments, celebrating the strength and creativity of organized and individual forms of resistance, while also probing the complicated, difficult, and sometimes "messy" workings of feminism. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits including 0.5 GESO, WMST, CAST, or HIST credit at the 1000 level, or permission of instructor. Equivalent to WMST 2711H.

Cross-listed: GESO-2711H, CAST-2711H

Considers feature, documentary, animated, and activist films that engage with critical environmental issues. Topics include popular portrayals of animals and endangered species; histories of environmental injustice; the development of environmentalism; the role of storytelling in history, science, and culture; and the challenges of depicting climate change and the Anthropocene. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Cross-listed: CUST-2805H, ERST-2805H, MDST-2805H

Explores how and why foodways have changed in North America and Europe between 1800 and the present. It allows students to draw links between global questions and everyday life, gender and politics, and social class and health, while introducing various methods of historical inquiry. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Cross-listed: SAFS-2821H

Explores the intersections of sport and politics across different regions and time-periods. Draws on historical and other sources to consider how sports have been used to advance political projects and agendas. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Uses sport as a prism through which to approach a range of cultural problems over the past century in societies around the world. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

A behind-the-scenes history of everyday life in Canada, exposing the complex histories of such common activities as drinking, barbecuing, gambling, and sex. The course emphasizes the "otherness" of previous moments in time as a way to foster an awareness of the contingency of our current historical moment. Prerequisite: 6.0 university credits. Students may take only one of HIST-CAST 3010Y or 3011H for credit.

Cross-listed: CAST-3011H

Provides a detailed investigation of the history of French Canada from 1763 to the late nineteenth century. It covers numerous political transformations as well as economic, social, and cultural developments that shaped French-Canadian nationalism and collective identity. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Cross-listed: CAST-3021H

Provides a detailed investigation of the history of French Canada and Quebec since 1890. It covers numerous political transformations as well as economic, social, and cultural developments that transformed, modernized, and liberalized French-Canadian nationalism, collective identity, and attitudes. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Cross-listed: CAST-3022H

Examines the first Trudeau era and its enduring legacy vis--vis Canadian politics, culture, and society. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair. Not open to students with credit for HIST-CAST 4061H. Offered only at Trent University Durham GTA.

The art of bringing history to a wider public. This course explores issues of memory, commemoration, heritage preservation and interpretation that face historic sites, museums, heritage societies, and archives in Canada and throughout the world. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair. Not open to students with credit for HIST-CAST 4071H.

Cross-listed: CAST-3071H

During the twentieth century, the United States emerged as a predominant world power. Course themes include the empire and expansionism; revolutionary struggle in Latin America, Asia, and Africa; ideological confrontation with the Soviet Union and China; and the impact of rapid cultural and social change in the United States on its international positions. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair. Students may take only one of HIST 3150Y, 3151H, 4150Y, or 4151H for credit.

Offers both a survey of the life and deeds of Alexander and an examination of the background, the ancient sources (studied in English), and modern assessments. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits. Equivalent to AHCL 3170H, 3171H.

Cross-listed: AGRS-3171H

In ancient Greece and Rome, exclusionary rituals and secretive initiation cults like those of Dionysos, Mithras, Isis, and Christianity overturned entrenched social norms and threatened the cohesion of the state. Archaeological and written evidence provide evidence for the origins, impact, and legacy of such practices in the ancient Mediterranean. Prerequisite: 8.0 university credits including one of AGRS-HIST 2103H (or AHCL 2103H), ANTH-AGRS 2205H or 2206H. Equivalent to AHCL 3222H.

Cross-listed: ANTH-3222H, AGRS-3222H

Examines the Nazi program of mass-murder in the context of earlier and later genocides, with particular emphasis on questions of agency and complicity. Topics include Nazi eugenics and race policy, the culture of the concentration camps, the role of ordinary Germans, resistance, and the Holocaust in popular culture. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair. Not open to students with credit for HIST 4310Y. Offered only at Trent University Durham GTA.

A history of comparative genocide that addresses the U.N. definition of genocide. The case studies include the examples of the Holocaust and the Cambodian, Rwandan, Armenian, Bosnian, and Ukrainian genocides; we study the historical conditions that led to genocide in each case, the actions of the perpetrators, and the suffering of ordinary peoples. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Examines the First World War from a global perspective. Through assigned readings, written assignments, and online discussions, students examine topics ranging from military operations in all the major theatres to studies of the war's impact on the European and North American home fronts. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) remains one of the most controversial and disputed conflicts in history. Was the Spanish Republic fighting for democracy against a tide of fascism that would soon swamp Europe? Did Franco save Spain from Stalinist communism? This class tackles these and other questions. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Explores the history of Western tyranny and democracy, from the Caesars of Ancient Rome, through Communism, Fascism and Nazism in the twentieth century, to the "spin dictatorships" of the twenty-first. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair. Not open to students with credit for HIST 4430H.

A survey of the history of France from prehistoric times to the present. Prerequisite: FREN 1102H and a minimum average of 70% on all FREN credits completed. Not open to students with credit for FREN-HIST 3505Y. Offered only in Nantes.

Cross-listed: FREN-3506H

Explores developments in warfare during the European Middle Ages (300-1550 CE), including cavalry, infantry, distance weapons, armour, fortifications, sieges, logistics, espionage, torture and the treatment of prisoners, and the social implications of war. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair. Not open to students with credit for HIST 4510Y or 4511H.

Examines the changing place of world's oceans in European outlook, from fear-inspiring barriers to eagerly explored and hotly contested highways that enabled the personal fortunes and disasters, establishment of European seaborne empires, and exchanges of goods, germs, ideas, and to the often involuntary mixing of cultures. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair. Students may take only one of HIST 3600Y or 3601H for credit.

Explores freedom and un-freedom in the pre-modern period: the changing concepts of absolute and partial freedom; religious, civic, and personal freedoms/liberties; tolerance freedom of conscience; restrictions based on age and gender, and on social and physical mobility; and the distinctions between the status of "free" and "unfree" persons. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Are famines inevitable? To what extent have modern famines been caused by social, political, and economic policies rather than food shortages? This course examines several case studies of famine in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the controversies surrounding them, from the Irish potato famine of the 1840s to Ethiopia in the 1970s. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Explores episodes of major epidemic diseases to chart the social, cultural, demographic, scientific, and political impacts of widespread deadly scourges. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of chair.

Cross-listed: SOCI-3630H

An advanced seminar course on select aspects of the history of the Middle East. Specific topics are determined yearly. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair. Not open to students with credit for HIST 4650Y or 4651H.

Explores the history of forensic science as it intersects with the interests of law and trials, especially through the evidence of expert witnesses, new scientific tests, and developing forensic approaches to crime scenes. Allows students to explore the influences of modern consumerism and racial and imperial interests. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair. Not open to students with credit for FRSC 4312H. Not open to students in the single-major Forensic Science program.

Cross-listed: FRSC-3680H

Explores the history of incarceration from the 1700s to the early 2000s, focusing on institutions designed to segregate those labelled sick, deviant, or in need of reform, particularly in Canada. Through secondary and primary sources, the history of incarceration is studied from the perspective of authorities, the public, and inmates. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits including 0.5 HIST credit or permission of the chair.

Cross-listed: FRSC-3711H

Explores the centuries-old obsession among Western elites with the political, technological, and social future of humankind. Special emphasis on anti-capitalist and eco-doom dystopians including Thomas Malthus, Karl Marx, and Paul Ehrlich. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair. Not open to students with credit for HIST 4730H. Offered only at Trent University Durham GTA.

Examines the history of the comics medium, but also the representation of history, society, and culture in comics and graphic novels. Students critically read American and European comics and their secondary sources to analyze and evaluate comics' place and role in modern culture. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Examines social and cultural conflicts that marked the history of the Caribbean during the colonial period. Topics include native societies, colonization, wars and conflicts, and plantation slavery during the early modern period. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Encompasses developments from the beginning of European settlement in the New World to the pre-revolutionary period in the mid-eighteenth century. Topics include the destruction and reconfiguration of indigenous societies, cross-cultural relations, the establishment of colonial empires, the slave trade, and overseas trade, as well as war and conflict in the Americas. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair. Not open to students with credit for HIST 3753H, 3754H, or 3755Y.

Selected social, economic, institutional, intellectual, and cultural features of early modern Europe (ca.1500-ca.1800), with special emphasis on popular culture, including such themes as gender relations, sexuality, popular religion, riots, literacy, crime, and popular politics. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of the chair.

Explores a variety of medieval innovations and their impact including architecture, armour and weaponry, food and drink, clothing and cloth-making, eyeglasses, time-keeping, health and sanitation, water power, printing, mining, and more. Students have the option to recreate a medieval invention for credit. Prerequisite: 4.0 HIST credits or permission of the chair.

Examines the first Trudeau era and its enduring legacy vis--vis Canadian politics, culture, and society. Prerequisite: 4.0 HIST and/or CAST credits or permission of the chair. Not open to students with credit for HIST-CAST 3061H. Offered only at Trent University Durham GTA.

Seminar on the Holocaust and its victims, perpetrators, and bystanders. Topics include Nazi eugenics and race policy, the death camps, the SS and Nazi police battalions in Eastern Europe, the role of ordinary Germans, resistance, and the Holocaust in popular culture. Prerequisite: 4.0 HIST credits or permission of the chair. Not open to students with credit for HIST 3310Y.

The rise of Fascism in Europe following the end of World War I, including Nazi Germany, Mussolini's Italy, Franco's Spain, and others. Topics include Fascism's origins, rise, ideology, policies, and effects. What was Fascism and why was it so strong in this period? What is the legacy of Fascism? Prerequisite: 4.0 HIST credits or permission of the chair.

Explores the history of Western tyranny and democracy, from the Caesars of Ancient Rome, through Communism, Fascism and Nazism in the twentieth century, to the "spin dictatorships" of the twenty-first. Prerequisite: 4.0 HIST credits or permission of the chair. Not open to students with credit for HIST 3430H.

Examines the lives of individuals and families, both famous and ordinary, striving to make their way in the turbulence of the Renaissance period, shaped both by remarkable human achievements and creativity and by never-ending turmoil caused by climate change, epidemics, economic problems, wars, social conflicts, and religious crises. Prerequisite: 4.0 HIST credits or permission of the chair.

Examines how and why our environment and our relationship with it have changed over time. Topics include how to do environmental history, shifts in ideas about natural resources and wilderness, the history of the Trent and Peterborough environments, the urban environment (particularly Toronto), and the history of environmental science and environmental politics. Prerequisite: 10.0 university credits.

Cross-listed: ERST-4670H, CAST-4670H

Examines the social and political dimensions of the Vietnam War from the perspective of Vietnam. Focusing on colonialism and postcolonial nation-building, Cold War rivalry and Vietnamese agency, the course underscores the complexity and violence of this civil conflict, made worse by the Cold War. Strong emphasis is placed on historiography, research, and critical analysis. Prerequisite: 4.0 HIST credits or permission of the chair. Not open to students with credit for HIST 3700Y.

Explores the centuries-old obsession among Western elites with the political, technological, and social future of humankind. Special emphasis on anti-capitalist and eco-doom dystopians including Thomas Malthus, Karl Marx, and Paul Ehrlich. Prerequisite: 4.0 HIST credits or permission of the chair. Not open to students with credit for HIST 3730H. Offered only at Trent University Durham GTA.

A social history of crime between 1500 and 1900, from the perspective of the prosecutors and the courts as well as that of the criminals. Topics include witchcraft, sodomy, murder, theft, rape, and prostitution. Prerequisite: 4.0 HIST credits or permission of the chair. Not open to students with credit for HIST-FRSC 3751Y.

Cross-listed: FRSC-4751Y

Examines two hundred years of maritime depredations from the first raid of a Spanish treasure fleet in 1523 to the suppression of piracy by 1726. It addresses social, economic, political, and cultural aspects of piracy, the underlying conditions, and the representations of this popular historical theme in the media. Prerequisite: 4.0 HIST credits or permission of the chair. Students may take only one of HIST 4755Y or 4757H for credit.

Individual courses designed to provide opportunities for more intensive study of particular topics in areas of history offered by the department. Open to undergraduates in the fourth year of the Honours program in History. Permission from relevant instructors and departmental approval is required before registering. Regular consultation during the year. See department website for application process. Prerequisite: 4.0 HIST credits.

Examines the history of Canada since the Second World War with an emphasis on political history. Topics include the post-World War II economic boom, the social transformations of the long 1960s, Quebec and English Canadian nationalism, Americanization, and the policies of key prime ministers including St. Laurent, Diefenbaker, Pearson, Trudeau, and Mulroney. Mandatory weekend retreat/workshop. Prerequisite: 14.0 university credits. Students may take only one of CAST-HIST 4970Y or 4971H for credit.

Cross-listed: CAST-4971H