Course Catalog

HIST 501 Explorations in World History I	3 Credits
This is the first of a sequence of two term-courses that are required of all MA students in History. It is a general survey course that explores specific themes and periods from the first human communities to c. 1500, and problematizes them in comparative, theory-intensive ways. It runs parallel to the SPS 101 (Humanity and Society I) freshman course, which serves as the teaching practicum of HIST 501 for SU graduate students in History who also serve as SPS 101 section instructors. Both SPS 101 and HIST 501 embody a discrete, step-function view of historical development, examining sets of institutional-cultural "solutions" situated along each major material-technical threshold, without however proceeding in a continuous narrative from one such locus to another. Topics dealt with in the first semester include : Modernity's subsumptions and transformations of pre-modernities; comparing contemporary with prehistoric hunters and gatherers; nomadic pastoralism, mounted archers, steppe empires; the economics of peasant production; the role of movement and conquest in history; "dark ages" and state formation; precocious maritime civilizations in Antiquity; tributary states and societies; the function and varieties of fief distribution; types of urban space and culture; the world on the eve of the "European miracle"; the Italian Renaissance as the dawn of early modernity.
Last Offered Terms Course Name SU Credit Fall 2023-2024 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2022-2023 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2021-2022 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2020-2021 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2019-2020 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2018-2019 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2017-2018 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2016-2017 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2015-2016 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2014-2015 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2013-2014 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2012-2013 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2011-2012 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2010-2011 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2009-2010 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2008-2009 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2007-2008 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2006-2007 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2005-2006 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2004-2005 Explorations in World History I 3 Fall 2003-2004 History of Europe and the West I 3 Fall 2002-2003 History of Europe and the West I 3 Fall 2001-2002 History of Europe and the West I 3 Fall 2000-2001 History of Europe & the West I 3
Prerequisite: __
Corequisite: __
ECTS Credit: 10 ECTS (10 ECTS for students admitted before 2013-14 Academic Year)
General Requirements: