History Colloquia

Colloquium Sign-up for Winter 2009 sections:
Monday, November 10
9:00-3:00
1014 Tisch Hall

An override is needed to register for a History colloquium. It is important for History juniors and seniors to come to the sign-up to let us know which section of History 396 or 397 you want to take in the winter term. If you are abroad, please contact Sheila Coley by email (sheilaw@umich.edu).

A colloquium takes students through the process of doing history: read, think, discuss, write, rewrite.

All history concentrators elect at least one section of either History 396 or 397 in their junior or senior year. They choose from a changing variety of topics each fall and winter term; History 397 is usually offered in the spring or summer. The colloquium counts as one of the upper-level concentration courses and may satisfy the geographic and pre-1800 requirements, depending on the topic.

Students in the History Honors Program satisfy the colloquium requirement by completing both courses in the honors sequence, History 398 and 399, but may take 396 or 397 if they wish. more about the Honors Program

What is the difference between 396 and 397?

• Only History 396 satisfies the Upper-Level Writing Requirement and typically involves a series of short papers leading to a longer final paper.

• Both are discussion seminars of 15 students or less.

• Students in either course must regularly attend class and actively participate in the discussion.

• Both courses require a significant amount of reading and writing.

How to register?
The colloquium sections are closed on Wolverine Access and available only by override from the department. Most sections have 15 seats, but some may have fewer.

For fall and winter term sections, a sign-up day is held before early registration (mid-March and mid-November). Students indicate their choice of section and overrides are issued based on this list. The override allows students to register on Wolverine Access.

Class requests are sorted with first priority going to graduating History seniors who have not already taken a colloquium.

Students studying abroad and those earning a teaching certificate in History should contact Sheila Coley (email: sheilaw@umich.edu) for override information before sign-up day. Registration procedures for spring and summer term colloquia vary; these are announced to the History email group and posted on this page in March.

History 396 (396 sections satisfy the Upper-Level Writing Credit)

sec. 001: Histories of Human Experimentation, Dr. Joel Howell
Monday, 1 - 4
ULWR

sec. 002: Ideologies & Empires in Chinese History, Prof. C.S. Chang
Wednesday 1-4
pre-1800, non-Western, and ULWR

sec. 003: Canadian History, Prof. Ken Sylvester
Monday & Wednesday 11:30-1
ULWR

sec. 004: The Galileian Moments , Prof. Rudi Lindner
Wednesday 2 - 5
ULWR


sec. 005: 47 Loyal Ronin, or Masterless Samurai, Prof. Hitomi Tonomura
Tuesday and Thursday 2:30-4
pre-1800, non-Western and ULWR

sec. 006: After Salem: The Transformation of the Witch in American Culture , Prof. Carol Karlsen
Monday 9 - 12
U.S. and ULWR


History 397 (397 sections do NOT satisfy ULWR)

sec. 001: Empires and Nations in Modern Europe, Prof. Josh First
Tuesday & Thursday 10-11:30
European history

sec. 002: TBA


sec. 003: History, Memory, Representation , Prof. Akiko Takenaka
Tuesday 1 - 4
Transregional history

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

HISTORY 396 satisfies the Upper-Level Writing Requirement

396.001: Histories of Human Experimentation, Dr. Joel Howell
Experimenting on human beings has always raised a set of complex social, ethical, and political questions. Some of those issues have persisted over the centuries; some have been specific to a given time and place. Much of contemporary medical practice is based on knowledge created by experiments done on human beings. In this class we will examine several histories of human experimentation. We will ask how people at different times and in different places answered questions about whether it was acceptable to use human beings as research subjects. We will examine which human beings were the subjects of the experiments, and what limits were placed on the conduct of the experiments. Reading assignments will include both primary source material and some of the latest scholarship on the subject. No prior background in medicine is necessary.

The class is discussion format, with occasional short lectures. Students will be guided in choosing a topic for a research paper, finding sources, crafting a historical argument, and writing (and re-writing) drafts. The goal is to complete a full-length paper on a topic relevant to the class and (one hopes) of specific interest to the student. There will be other, smaller writing assignments.

Overrides for non-history concentrators will be allocated on the first day. Anyone absent from the first class without advance permission may not take the course. Evaluation will be based on discussions, oral presentations, and the student's writings.

Readings will include:

• Coursepack of readings (cost estimated to be about $70)
• David Feldshuh, Miss Evers' Boys
• Susan E. Lederer, Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America before the Second World War
• Susan Reverby, Tuskegee's Truths: Rethinking the Tuskegee Syphilis Study
• Ignaz Semmelweis, trans K. Codell Carter, Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever

396.002: Ideologies & Empires in Chinese History, Prof. C.S. Chang
This course will examine the major ideologies behind the rise, constitution, and fall of the powerful empires in Chinese history. It will focus on one empire: the Qin (Ch'in), 221-207 B.C., popularly known as the empire of the Great Wall and Terracotta Warriors. The first empire in Chinese history, the Qin Empire marked the end of China's Classical Age and the beginning of Imperial China. Founded by one great mystic hero, the First Emperor (Ying, Zheng, r. 221-210 B.C.), its short life of fourteen years actually charted the course of Chinese history for the next two thousand years. This course will look into the complex ideological forces behind the enigmatic personality of the First Emperor and the founding and developing of the Qin Empire. Finally, through this study, some "big questions" in the current historical scholarship will be raised:

• Do ideologies matter in the rise and fall of powerful empires?
• Do powerful empires lead to the "end of history"?
• Do history-making heroes "live" forever?
  

396.003: Canadian History , Prof. Ken Sylvester
This class blends chronological coverage with in-depth analysis of selected topics.  The purpose is to address a number of themes that frame the Canadian narrative and to explore the diversity of perspectives that inform it.  Today, Canada is an extraordinary blend of world cultures, a multicultural diversity unheralded before the 1930s, now embraced in the context of activist bilingual state.  This social experiment is occurring in the midst of a French-English détente that seems constantly on the verge of breaking down.  The Canadian story has never been the history of single people realizing its national ambitions through revolution or civil war.  Instead it is a story of adjustment, accommodation and transformation: of indigenous societies to French and English empires; of French colonists, British newcomers, and American refugees to one another, in what remained of British North America after 1783; of a quasi-independent transcontinental state between 1840 and 1940; and a modernizing, open society since. 
The class does not assume prior knowledge of Canadian history.  Some familiarity with British, French and American history is helpful.  Class will meet twice a week in seminar to discuss assigned readings.  There will be close to 200 pages of reading each week.  These will include background reading, journal articles and chapters from monographs.  The readings will be posted on the Library’s electronic reserves. 

Every week students should prepare a discussion question on the week’s readings, and post it on the class Ctools site.  The questions will be used to guide the discussion each week.  A different student will be encouraged to lead the discussion each week, with the help of the instructor.  You will also prepare two short papers (2500 words) that review and compare the perspectives in the assigned readings.  Students are encouraged to submit draft papers for feedback, and to rewrite poorly written papers. Two classes, listed as Paper Conferences on the schedule, will be devoted to peer discussion of students’ papers.  Students will post their papers on the Ctools site prior to class.
 
Discussion is the main component of student assessment, and attendance and participation are essential.
 

396.004:The Galileian Moments , Prof. Rudi Lindner
This seminar is part of the "astronomy theme semester" offerings in LS&A during the winter term. A central figure for the semester is Galileo: his discoveries, his contribution to the Scientific Revolution, the persecution he endured, and his legacy both in science and the wider culture for the past four hundred years. In this seminar, we will look at Galileo's career and we will actually consider some of his investigations, especially the astronomical ones. Then we will turn to later "Galileian moments" in the history of science and society, such as the debates over evolution (both in the universe and on earth), the relationship between science and religion, men and women in science, and the nature of scientific advance, using examples from a variety of fields.

This is a history and not a science course: the sole prerequisite is intellectual curiosity. Our concerns lie with the human aspects of science and the relationships of those aspects with politics, religion, society, and culture.

We will read original sources, usually by the scientists or their critics, and we will also look at a number of media presentations of the evidence and the disputes themselves.

Students will take part in class discussions and also prepare a project on a "Galileian moment" chosen with the approval of the instructor.

396.005: 47 Loyal Ronin, or Masterless Samurai, Prof. Hitomi Tonomura

On the fourteenth day of the twelfth month of Genroku 2 (1702), forty-seven ronin (masterless samurai) of Akô avenged their lord’s humiliation by taking the head of their “enemy.” Was this an act of honor or homicide? While the shogunate office judged the act criminal and ordered the men to commit seppuku (death by disembowelment), later opinions tend to hail the incident as an emblem of heroic loyalty. Possibly the most dramatic and least understood historical saga of all time, the Akô vendetta has been reimagined and popularized in countless books, woodblock prints, theatrical performances, movies, and TV series—even in the Simpsons. After examining the structure of shogunal rule that gave rise to this incident, we will investigate what really happened and how people of various classes reacted to it by consulting contemporary historical sources, such as witness statements, recorded rumors, official transcripts, philosophical comments, and a popular play. We also will view two films, produced in two different modern eras, and sharpen our appreciation of the variety of meanings that the vendetta has come to encompass over the past three centuries. 

Students are graded on class participation (20%) and three papers (80%).

Most of the readings are in CTools and in the Coursepack.  One book to be purchased: Takeda Izumo, Miyoshi Shōraku, and Namiki Senryū;  translated by Donald Keene. Chûshingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers): A Puppet Play (Columbia University Press, 1974). $23.50   ISBN: 0-231-03531-4       
On library reserve: PL 794.6 .K23 1997

396.006: After Salem: The Transformation of the Witch in American Culture , Prof. Carol Karlsen
Historians interested in witchcraft in America have usually focused on the Salem Outbreak in 1692 or on the New England witch trials that came before.  This course, on the other hand, begins with the seventeenth century cases but devotes most of its attention to Anglo-American witchcraft history from 1692 to the present day.  In it, we will explore several questions not easily answered.  Why, for example, did witchcraft trials come to an end soon after the Salem outbreak? When and why did witches and witchcraft cease to play a central role in official religious doctrine and popular belief?  Why has a fascination with the witch endured in new cultural forms, such as Romantic painting, child and adult fiction and film, advertising, and political cartoons?   In what specific ways has the witch image, usually but not always female, been transformed over the past three centuries?   What meanings do these transformations convey today, especially but not exclusively for women and girls?  And what significance lies in the rash of recent challenges to the most predominant uses of the witch?  Early in the semester, this class will concentrate on published scholarship and strategies for engaging in research on this topic, but as the term progresses students will direct their energies increasingly toward conceiving and carrying out their own research in primary sources.  Because this is an advanced-level history colloquium that meets the upper-level writing requirement, students should be prepared to undertake a variety of writing assignments, including outlines and progress reports, evaluations of what others have written about their findings, and a first and final draft of an original 15-20-page history proposal.  

Required reading for the early weeks of the course include Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft; Carol Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England; Marion Gibson, Witchcraft Myths in American Culture; and Arthur Miller, The Crucible (although students who have taken History/Women’s Studies 375 will be assigned alternative interpretations.)

HISTORY 397 does NOT count for Upper-Level Writing Credit

397.001: Empires and Nations in Modern Europe, Prof. Josh First
This colloquium explores the rise and fall of the great empires of Central and Eastern Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing on the Hapsburg, Ottoman and Russian Empires. With the decline of these empires in the late-19th century, we see a rise in nationalist sentiment in places like the Czech lands, Poland, the Baltic States of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, Finland, Serbia and Hungary, which rose up to further challenge the imperial metropoles in Vienna, Constantinople and Moscow. We will then address different models for how each of these empires disintegrated, and how nation-states emerged in their places. The final third of the colloquium will address the fates of these new nation-states after the Nazis take power and attempt a final stage of empire-building during the late-1930s and early-1940s. Simultaneous to this, we will examine the Soviet Union as a successor state to the Russian Empire. This Colloquium will explore various theories of empire, imperialism, nation-building and nationalism. Students will also gain insight on contemporary problems of “neo-imperialism” in Central-Eastern Europe, as we will address recent political crises in Ukraine, Georgia and Chechnia as particular to the post-communist and post-imperial age.

This course will be mostly composed of classroom discussion, with only minimal lecture as needed. Students will be evaluated through 1-page weekly response papers, class participation and a longer research paper due at the end of the course.

Texts to purchase:
-Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 2006)
-Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780 (Cambridge, 1992)
-Ron Suny, Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution and the Collapse of the Soviet Union (Stanford, 1993)
-Robin Winks and Joan Neuberger, Europe and the Making of Modernity, 1815-1914 (Oxford, 2005)

397.002: TBA

397.003: History, Memory, Representation , Prof. Akiko Takenaka
What is the relationship between memory and history? How can we use 
memory in the writing of history? How can representations of memory 
be used as historical evidence?  In this course, we will examine how 
personal and collective memories have been represented in various 
media, including film, photography, monuments, museums, paintings, 
literature and music. The primary focus of this course is memories of 
trauma. While addressing trauma as a broad theme, we will also look 
at case studies drawn from the two major catastrophes of the 
twentieth century: the Holocaust and the dropping of atomic bombs in 
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In addition to exploring the possibilities of 
“reading” such representations as historical evidence, we will 
interrogate the relationship between history and memory. Taking into 
account the dynamic nature of memory, which is understood to signify 
the present more than the past, we will explore how personal and 
collective memories as well as their representations have affected 
the construction of what we understand as history.