Sample Syllabi
Indian Ocean World History
How have the movements of objects, people, and ideas created a global world? This lecture and discussion-based world history course takes this question that is more frequently asked of an expanding Euro--American world system and seeks to answer it in the context of the Indian Ocean world. Centering material culture, social histories, and the experiences of individual historical actors through autobiographies and creative works, this class traces the history of the Indian Ocean as an interconnected world region from the slave trade through the present.
Link to syllabus forthcoming
Early African History
Until the mid-twentieth century Africa was not often imagined as having a history. But today we know that the continent's history did not begin with slavery. What was the history of this vast and diverse land before the era of colonialism? In what different ways did Africans organize their societies and imagine their worlds? How did Africans help create the premodern and early modern world? This survey-level course introduces students to historical methods through a consideration of the textual and extra-textual sources historians have used to examine Africa's precolonial past.
Link to syllabus forthcoming
History of Sex and Sexuality
Sex is simultaneously a basic biological act and a complex social performance which has been understood, moralized, and controlled in an array of different ways around the world over the course of human history. It is both intensely private and personal and a deeply political matter of public discourse. This survey-level course introduces students to the cultural, social, and political histories of sex and sexuality around the globe through a combination of lectures and discussions.
Link to syllabus forthcoming
African History
Global History
Early World History
We tend to assume that globalization and global mobility are products of the modern world. But in what ways did global systems operate prior to the "age of exploration"? How did long distance trade, migration, empires, connections, and conflicts occur in the premodern world? What were the limitations on these connections? Rather than jump from one civilization to another, this survey-level global history course addresses the early history of global interconnectivity through a combination of lectures and discussions.
Link to syllabus forthcoming