HIST 801, 828, 840, 865 and 901 are 6.0 credit units courses normally offered over two terms. HIST 898, 899 and 999 are 6.0 credit units. All other courses are 3.0 credit units, 1 term courses.
HIST 801 Religious Identity, Dissidence and Interaction in the Pre Modern Mediterranean
This course examines the formation of religious identities and confessional cultures in the medieval and early modern Mediterranean world, including Muslim, Byzantine and Latin societies. It approaches these issues from two complementary vantages, examining intra and inter religious difference. The course investigates the construction of religious orthodoxy and unorthodoxy, the nature of dissent, controversy and "heresy" in Muslim and Christian religious cultures. Likewise, it examines interreligious relations and experiences among Muslims, Christians and Jews and the treatment of religious minorities in the Mediterranean. It explores the possibility of an interplay between these two processes historically in the Mediterranean world in order to understand the consequences on religious and political cultures and identities. Two term seminar; fall/winter.
HIST 802 Selected Topics in History I
A seminar on a selected topic in history. Topics change from year to year. May be offered jointly with HIST 406. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 803 Topics in Irish History 1798 to the Present
An exploration of topics in the social, cultural, political and economic history of Ireland from the Rising of 1798 onwards. (May be offered jointly with HIST 484). (3.0 credit units). One term seminar; winter.
HIST 804 The Atlantic World I
This seminar explores the exchanges, circulations, mobilities and interconnectedness of goods, texts, ideas and people comprising the four continents of the Atlantic World from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Topics include encounters between different peoples, cultural geography, network ontologies, material circulations, the production of religious, legal, medical, and botanical knowledge, and Indigenous and African slavery. Topics change from year to year. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 805 British North America, c. 1749 1880
This field seminar will survey the social, political, economic, cultural, and intellectual history of the British colonies that became Canada from roughly the founding of Halifax in 1749 to the Confederation era. Topics may include British imperialism, Native newcomer relations, the development of neo British settler societies, and the new social relations and institutional structures of an emerging capitalist and liberal order. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 806 U.S. History since 1900
This course will introduce students to major works and themes in US history since 1900. Topics will vary from year to year. Consult the department website for details. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 807 Reading French (If available)
This non credit course is designed to develop students' reading skills in French. Although some grammar is covered, the primary emphasis is on comprehension of a wide variety of texts in French in order to equip graduate students for research. Assessment for this course will be either Pass/Fail. Students are not permitted to audit this course. However, they may write the final exam without enrolling in this course, as a way of satisfying the language requirements for the PhD in History. Assignments and evaluation: Three in class tests (75%), final test (25%).
Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of French. Exclusion: Open only to graduate students who need to fulfill their graduate language requirement.
HIST 808 Capitalism: A Historical View
This seminar approaches the economic, sociology and culture of capitalism from a global and historical perspective. Departing from an examination and critique of the European canon (Smith, Marx, and Weber) students will explore themes, question assumptions and develop a new understanding of the global dimensions of economic change and the resulting relations of power and inequality between peoples and within societies. (3.0 credit units) .One term seminar; fall.
HIST 809 Imperial and Postcolonial History
This course examines the history of imperial formations and colonial contact in the British empire in the east in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a focus on the interdisciplinary and theoretical approaches of postcolonial criticism. Themes include statecraft and governmentality, colonial development, race and diaspora, power and archives, decolonization and the afterlives of colonialism. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 810 First Nations of North America
Examination of the ethnohistorical method and the writing of Native American history. Topics will include archaeology, anthropology, contact between Europeans and First Nations, trade, missionaries, colonization, and there will be a geographic focus on Canada and the United States and a chronological focus on the period 500 A.D. to 1900. (May be offered jointly with HIST 467.) One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 811 Professional Development for Historians
This course comprises a series of workshops and web resources to help MA students pursue their professional and career goals within and beyond the discipline. Students will select the workshops, seminars, and resources best suited to their goals. The course aims to equip students with knowledge and skills necessary for success in academic and nonacademic professional contexts. It is marked on a pass/fail basis. Two term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 812 Selected Topics in History
A seminar on a selected topic in history. Topics change from year to year. (May be offered jointly with HIST 400 or another 400 level course.) One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
2023-24 topic: Power and Knowledge: Foucault for Historians
In this seminar, we will explore how Foucault revolutionized the study of history, including the fields of madness and medicine, prison and punishment, sexuality and the self. In addition to reading Foucault, we will also look at how historians have made use of Foucault’s ‘toolkit’ – concepts such as biopolitics and governmentality – in their own research and writing. Our aim will be to examine how historians have adapted, elaborated, and critiqued Foucault, notably in the areas of gender, race, and colonialism. One term seminar; fall.
HIST 813 Topics in Modern European History I
This course will address key topics and historiographical debates in Modern European History. (May be offered jointly with HIST 400.) One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 816 20th century Canadian History
This thematic course examines the main fields of 20th century Canadian history. Using a wide range of monographs and articles, the course will explore issues and debates in Canadian historiography and will introduce students to key events in 20th century Canada. Topics may include gender, the environment, settler colonialism, labour and class, the welfare state, race and ethnicity, sexuality, and childhood. One term seminar; fall.
HIST 817 Race and Gender in Modern U.S. History
This course examines race, gender, and their intersections through a focus on modern African American history. Topics include: gender in the post Emancipation era; the law, racist science and racialization; racial and sexual violence and Jim Crow; the Great Migration, the New Negro and the Harlem Renaissance; mass consumption; the modern civil rights movement; and, from Black feminism to Black Liberation. (May be offered jointly with GNDS 837 .) One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
EXCLUSION: GNDS 837
HIST 818 Topics in Global Agrarian & Environmental History
A course on globalizing agrarian problems. Pressures on agrarian societies are considered in relation to environmental history and the history of environmentalism. An overview of relevant literature illuminates challenges and transformations since 1900, including Green Revolutions and the weakening of collectivist modes of production. Discussion of current scholarly trends examines research on past practices as patterns of ecological sustainability. (May be offered jointly with HIST 400.) One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 819 Topics in the History of China Since 1949
The course examines how Maoist policies shaped the People's Republic of China, how the post Mao reform programs emerged through negotiations between state and society, and the rapid, sweeping changes experienced by the Chinese people since the 1980s. A particular focus will be the local level and the manner in which the business interests of Communist Party and military officials have shaped reform. (May be offered with HIST 499.) One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 820 Radicalism, Revolution, and Religion in Russian History and Literature
In nineteenth century Russia, religion, politics, and literature were inextricably intertwined. This course will look at how Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, and other Russian writers grappled with religious questions, revolutionary activism, and the role of the writer in society. In turn, the course will examine how literature influenced Russian society and culture, from radical political organizations to artistic and literary movements. (May be offered jointly with HIST 466.) (3.0 credit units).
HIST 821 Indigenous Peoples and Empires: Encounters in North America
This course examines Indigenous peoples of North America in the early modem period focusing on their early experiences of European conquest and colonization. This course also critically examines how historians have written about such encounters. Graduate students will acquire knowledge of the ethnohistory of Indigenous societies as well as the French, English, Dutch, and Spanish empires in North America. One term course; winter. S. Berthelette. (3.0 credit units)
HIST 824 Cultural History of Enlightenment France
An examination of how the Enlightenment changed French culture, focusing on key ideas of cultural development and stagnation, changing sensibility and sociability, and cultural institutions and venues. (May be offered jointly with HIST 424.) One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 825 Global, World, and Transnational History
This seminar is designed to provide an advanced level introduction to the methodological field of Global, World, and Transnational History based on the study of global problems, processes, patterns or issues. The course will cover the major trends in historiography, examine the primary epistemological issues, and explore how commodities, people and the environment serve as interesting and important methodological avenues. This course will also engage with the foundational debates in the field, and consider its pragmatic and epistemological challenges. (May be offered jointly with HIST 435.) One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 826 Culture Decades: Canada, 1945
This course will examine selected themes in post World War II Canadian social and cultural history. Themes include the intersection of foreign relations and nation building, the ever increasing influence of a largely U.S. based mass culture, Canadian elite and popular responses to perceived “Americanization,” baby boom culture, the development of the “affluent society” Canada style, suburbanization, gender constructions in “cold war Canada,” narratives of English Canadian national identity, and social movements in the “long 1960s". (May be offered jointly with HIST 401.) One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 827 Medieval Greece
An examination of the complex political history of the region now understood as Greece and its multiple societies, cultures and religious communities from the 4th 15th centuries. Attention will also focus on the construction of identities for and within this region, both during the period itself and in later Ottoman, Western European and Modern Greek discourses. (May be offered jointly with HIST 441). One term seminar; winter. (3.0 credit units)
HIST 828 The Crusades and the Latin Kingdoms
An exploration of key topics in the history and interpretation of the medieval Crusades. The society and culture of the Latin kingdoms will be studied, as will the impact of the Crusades on the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean, both Muslim and Christian. (May be offered jointly with HIST 430.) Two term seminar; fall/winter.
HIST 830 Selected Topics in History
A seminar on a selected topic in history. Topics change from year to year. One term seminar.
2023-24 Topic: History of Political Thought: Topics and Methods
This course will explore the history of political thought both methodologically and topically. Readings will include primary texts and secondary historical treatments. The chronological focus will be on the formative early modern period. Topics will vary by year, but may include: theories of sovereignty; natural law and natural rights; international law; theories of colonization; slavery; religious governance and toleration; resistance theory; gender and politics. One term seminar; fall.
HIST 831 Selected Topics in History
A seminar on a selected topic in history. Topics change from year to year. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units)
2023-24 Topic: Empires and Intimacies
This course explores the transnational “emotional economy”: that is, familial and intimate relations of power created in and by empires, in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The readings are thematic and interdisciplinary, drawn from national and transnational contexts, primarily in the Americas. Topics include colonial knowledge formation, tourism, visual cultures, racialization, sexual politics and other bonds of affect. One term seminar; fall.
HST 832 Selected Topics in History
A seminar on a selected topic in history. Topics change from year to year. One term seminar.
HIST 833 Black Atlantic Exchanges
This course explores how diaspora subjects, the descendants of enslaved people, and world citizens, have borrowed and appropriated forms, styles, and genres to release new political and cultural possibilities. In doing so, it considers how Black Atlantic thinkers have sought to make abstract ideas about nationalism, modernity, and coloniality more legible, audible, and visible to diverse audiences. (3.0 credit units)
HIST 834 Public History: Skills and Praxis
This graduate seminar introduces the occupations and projects of Public History, presenting the variety of the historical craft beyond academia. Students acquire skills needed to execute a Public History research project. Students will understand and articulate their marketable skills to better present themselves in the non-academic job market. One term course; winter. (3.0 credit units)
HIST 835 Comparative Public Policy
Examines public policy in Western Europe, the United States and Canada from the late nineteenth century to the present day, with an emphasis on the post 1945 era. Topics include the rise of the welfare state (health care, employment, housing, pensions, family, and education policy); taxation; urban planning, economic policy, immigration policy, free trade and globalization. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 837 The U.S. and the Caribbean: A Transnational History
This graduate seminar examines recent and foundational scholarship that locates the twentiethcentury United States in a transnational context with interest in the British Caribbean. The course features social and cultural insights to focus on how transnational approaches and key historiographical developments have reshaped scholarly understandings of U.S. and Caribbean history. One term course; winter. (3.0 credit units)
HIST 838 Theory and Philosophy History
A seminar course which will explore the major questions that have occupied philosophers and theorists of history and historiography from antiquity to our own time: subjects covered will include substantive philosophies of history, neo-Kantianism and idealism; pragmatism; analytical philosophy of history; postmodernism, and temporality. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units). May be offered jointly with HIST 487.
EXCLUSION: HIST 487
HIST 839 The State in Canada to 1914
This seminar explores how historians have studied the state, power, and authority in the long 19th century from diverse theoretical perspectives. Topics may include the new political history, settler colonialism, and technologies of the liberal state such as maps, the census, treaties with First Nations and reservations, schooling, and the law. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 840 Studies in 18th Century France: The French Revolution, 1789 1799
An examination of the main events of the French Revolution in the light of modern research. Special emphasis will be placed on cultural developments as seen in symbols, festivals, music, plays, caricatures, monuments, and architectural projects, using the rich collection of primary sources available at Queen's. A reading knowledge of French is desirable. Two term seminar; fall/winter.
HIST 841 U.S. History to 1900
This course will introduce students to major works in US history up to 1900. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 843 Comparative Colonial North American Societies
A thematic examination of some of the social, cultural, religious and intellectual aspects of colonial societies in North America in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. Special emphasis is placed on issues surrounding race, gender and status and how differing peoples and cultures interacted over time and in specific places and cultural contexts. (3.0 credit units). One term seminar; fall.
HIST 844 Production of Knowledge
This course looks at how scholars have approached the production, translation, circulation, and adaptation of knowledge, writ large; and the conditions and possibilities that make knowledge production possible in the early modern period. (3.0 credit units). One term course; winter.
HIST 845 History in the World: Theory, Practice, Controversy
An advanced course focused on critical issues in historical thought and writing with a focus on the impact of history on current issues and controversies, including who “owns” the past; the moral responsibilities of the historian; judgment of past historical figures by modern standards; the relationship between history and memory; and the impact on historical writing of postmodernism and postcolonialism. (3.0 credit units). May be offered jointly with HIST 414. One term course; fall.
EXCLUSION: HIST 414
HIST 851 Global African History
This course focuses on global African history from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean and the African diasporas. Seminar topics include oral traditions and oral history; historical linguistics; subaltern voices and vocal subalterns; religious histories and histories of religions; civilizations and missions to civilize; the environment and developmental pursuits across time. (3.0 credit units). One term seminar.
HIST 852 African Decolonization and In Dependence
This advanced seminar offers an in depth examination of African history since independence. Core topics include the contradictions of colonialism; upheavals of decolonization; economic crises and famines after independence; dislocations of the Cold War and attendant socioeconomic re/mis configurations; and the challenges and prospects of the 21" century, including the War on Terror and the rise of China . (May be offered jointly with HIST 400.) One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 855 The British in India
This course examines the impact of colonialism in the subcontinent from the mid eighteenth century to the present, with a focus on the diverse theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of colonial India. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 859 Modern Britain and the World
This course is an exploration of the history of Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a particular focus on how the world shaped this history. (May be offered jointly with HIST 459.) One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 865 Selected Topics in History II
A seminar on a selected topic in history. Topics change from year to year. Two term seminar.
HIST 866 Race and Ethnicity in Latin America, 1492 to the Present
This course examines the history of race relations in Latin America from European contact to the present day, focussing on the significant indigenous and African contribution to the complex multiethnic societies of Mexico, Central and South America. Major topics include indigenous resistance and adaptation to conquest and colonial rule, long standing debates about assimilation versus cultural survival, and contemporary struggles over land, resources, and identity. The course also looks at slavery, emancipation, and the cultural contribution of Africans to modern Latin America, and at the much debated assertion that Latin America provides a unique and less conflictual model of race relations. (3.0 credit units). (May be offered jointly with HIST 461.) One term seminar; fall.
HIST 867 Social History of Modernizing Latin America, 1860 1960
The history of everyday life in Latin America from 1860 to 1960, a century of global economic and cultural transformation. Themes include urbanization, the "social question," state and class formation, gender roles, crime, science and technology. Explores social history as a discipline. (3.0 credit units). (May be offered jointly with HIST 462.) One term seminar; winter.
HIST 875 The Human Dimension of War
An exploration of the human dimension of war in a Canadian context Topics to be studied, from a Canadian perspective, include military culture, combat stress, leadership, gender and sexuality in the military, and mutinies. The course will also offer students the opportunity to engage in original research in the field. One term seminar; winter.
HIST 876 Canada at War
An exploration of war in a Canadian context, with an emphasis on how war has shaped Canadian society and the relationship between Canada and its armed forces. Topics to be studied, from a Canadian perspective, include the nature of war, the new military history, the military identity of an unmilitary people, and the military as a profession. The course will also offer students the opportunity to engage in original research in the field. One term seminar; fall.
HIST 877 History, Memory, Commemoration
Students will explore the multitudinous ways individuals and collectivities imagine, (re)create, perform and relate to their pasts, since the 19th century. This graduate seminar will introduce the major theoretical frameworks of collective memory, commemoration and memorials, public and institutional history, and other forms of collective memory making, using seminal Canadian, American and European case studies. Particular attention will be given to the major approaches developed over the last thirty years, introducing the most important researchers of this very popular field, also focussing on ground breaking techniques and innovative primary sources. The major objective is to familiarize students with the best studies in the field and prepare them to undertake studies using these principles. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 878 US Culture and Society, 1945
An examination of selected themes in US cultural history. Topics for discussion include mass consumer society, the postwar rise of the "affluent society," anti communism, sexuality and gender, the television age, popular music, suburbanization, social upheaval in the 'long sixties, 'and the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s. (May be offered jointly with HIST 400.) One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 880 Miracles and Magic in Byzantium
An examination of evidence for, attitudes towards, and perceived mechanisms of, miracles and magic in the Byzantine world, while considering differing theoretical approaches to and historiography of the subject. Topics to be covered will include: traditions of sanctity and miracle, demonology, and magic or sorcery (roughly categorized under protection, discovery and manipulation). (May be offered jointly with HIST 400). One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 881 Religious Identity in Byzantium
Beginning with the creation of the concept of religious identity in the early Christian and Late Antique context, this course explores issues in the construction of an orthodox religious identity, and, in parallel, the establishment of dissidence as unorthodoxy in the Byzantine and East Mediterranean world to the fifteenth century. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 886 Topics in Early Modern Europe I
This graduate seminar examines topics in the political, social, economic, cultural and intellectual history of Early Modern Europe from the Renaissance to the French Revolution. Topics may include the rise of the modern state, the age of exploration and colonialism, revolution, gender and sexuality, intellectual and religious life, and economic transformation. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 887 Topics in Mediterranean History
This seminar approaches the history of the Mediterranean as a space of inter religious and cross cultural encounter in which to investigate religious, ethnic, linguistic and/or racial identity and diversity. It may also consider the economic, social, and political expressions and consequences of cosmopolitan interaction, conflict and coexistence on the societies of the Mediterranean zone. Topics and chronological framework change from year to year; consult history website for further details. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 888 Liberalism, Authoritarianism and Citizenship in Latin America
Key debates in the political history of Latin America from Independence (1820s) to the recent past. Themes include the tension between liberal and authoritarian traditions; struggles for civil, political, and human rights; populism and charismatic leaders; revolutionary and reactionary ideologies. (May be offered jointly with HIST 463.) One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 889 China’s Revolutions, 1911 to 1949
A course on China’s nationalist and communist revolutions. Readings explore rival revolutionaries’ goals and programs. Seminars examine the internal and international struggles affecting the outcome of the civil war of 1946 1949. (May be offered jointly with HIST 498.) One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 890 Britain and the Empire
This course is an introduction to recent approaches to the study of the British Empire and draws extensively on scholarship that treats ‘metropole’ and ‘colony’ as a unified field of analysis. Themes include slavery and abolition, ideological justifications for empire, empires and intimacies, knowledge and power, ‘race’ and diaspora. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 891 Topics in Early Modern Europe II
This graduate seminar examines topics in the political, social, economic, cultural and intellectual history of early Modern Europe from the Renaissance to the French Revolution. Topics may include the rise of the modern state, the age of exploration and colonialism, revolution, gender and sexuality, intellectual and religious life, and economic transformation. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 892 Topics in Modern European History II
This course will address key topics and historiographical debates in Modern European History. Please consult the department website for further details. (3.0 credit units). One term seminar; fall.
HIST 893 19th Century Colonial North America
This course will continue to explore the themes considered in HIST 843 with particular reference to the nineteenth century. The course will also offer students the opportunity to engage in original research in the field. (3.0 credit units). One term seminar; winter.
PREREQUISITE: HIST 843 or permission of the instructor.
HIST 894 The Atlantic World II
This seminar examines the creation and subsequent decentring of an Atlantic World from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Topics may include encounters between different peoples, methods of conversion and cultural colonialism, ethnographies, economic and social exchange, diasporas, slavery, emancipation, and revolution. Topics will vary from year to year. Consult the department website for details. One term seminar. (3.0 credit units).
HIST 895 Directed Reading
Individual directed reading/tutorials under the guidance of a faculty member in an area of the instructor's expertise. The course is one semester in length and is normally to be held in the fall. NOTE: HIST 895 may not be counted for credit as fulfilling part of the minimum two course requirements for History graduate students.
HIST 896 Directed Reading
Individual directed reading/tutorials under the guidance of a faculty member in an area of the instructor's expertise. The course is one semester in length and is normally to be held in the winter. NOTE: HIST 896 may not be counted for credit as fulfilling part of the minimum two course requirements for History graduate students.
HIST 898 Master's Essay Research
HIST 899 Master's Thesis Research
HIST 901 Approaches to History
An examination of major historical debates, schools of historical research and writing, and historical methodologies. This course is required for all Ph.D. candidates and open only to Ph.D. candidates. This course is graded on a pass/fail basis. One term; fall.
HIST 999 Ph.D. Thesis Research