Thematic Concentrations

Investigates the history of cities, urbanization and urbanism.  Examines the economic, social, demographic and spatial processes that fuel urbanization and shape urban systems.  Explores the development of cities and urban processes through a variety of issues: economic activities, social structures, material conditions, political institutions, built environment, spatial form, urban cultures, and everyday life.  Interrogates the historical agency of cities: their impact on individuals, social groups, and the larger society.

Sample courses:

AFRS BC3103, Heading South: Voyages to Latin America from the Conquest to Carnival (Walker)

AFRS BC3550, Queer Harlem (Belilgne)

CLCV BC3333, Archaeology of Crisis (Morris)

EAAS UN3215, Korean Literature and Film (Hughes)

GRKM UN3935, Hellenism and the Topographic Imagination (Antoniou)

History BC3770, African Communities in New York, 1900 to the Present (George)

History BC3791, Lagos: From the Pepper Farm to the Megacity (George)

History BC3508, Colonial Gotham (Lipman)

History UN3629, Mobilities in the Americas: An Urban and Public History (Dominguez)

History BC2477, Race, Class, and Politics in New York City (Vaz)

History UN3017, Sexuality and the City (Chauncey)

History UN3866, Wars of Indochina (Nguyen)

History BC, Colonial Cities of the Americas: 1500 - 1800 (Baics)

History BC2408, Emerging Cities: 19th Century Urban History of the Americas and Europe (Baics)

History BC2405, 19th Century New York Spatial History (Baics)

History BC3830, Bombay/Mumbai and its Urban Imaginaries (Rao)

History BC3842, Subaltern Urbanism (Rao)

MDES UN3915, A History of African Cities (Diouf)

MDES GU4142, Histories of Urban Africa: Work, Leisure, Love, and Creative Young Lives (Fair)

MDES UN3331, Urban Space & Conflict in Middle East (Mouradian)

SOCI BC3236, Arab New York (Serhan)

SOCI BC3939, Housing Equity and the American Dream (Becher)

SPAN UN3492, The Country and the City (Fernandez-Cebrian)

For additional urban related courses outside of the Barnard-Columbia History Departments, see the Urban Studies website for a regularly updated course list  http://urban.barnard.edu/

Explores the history of the interplay between ideas and culture. Examines how religious, scientific, economic, and political ideas are shaped by society and how in turn they influence the formation of societies. Compares different periods and regions to gain appreciation for both intellectual continuities and change over time.

Sample Courses:

History UN1768, European Intellectual History (Robcis)

History BC2101, History of Capitalism (Wennerlind)

History BC2321, Colonial Encounters (Tiersten)

History UN2478, US Intellectual History (Blake)

History UN3189, Composing the Self in Early Modern Europe (Roberts)

History BC3368, History of the Senses in England and France (Valenze)

History BC3692, Anarchism: A Global History (Moya)

History BC3825, Race, Caste, and the University (Rao)

HSEA UN3871, Modern Japan: Images and Words (Pflugfelder)

History GU4714, Modern Arab Intellectual History (Elshakry)

Investigates efforts by individuals, groups, and the state to claim, define, and exercise power. Examines topics including state formation and modes of governance; the evolution of law and policy; and changing conceptions of citizenship and civil society. Included in its scope are social and political movements or other efforts to redefine civil and human rights and to contest the power of the state or other authorities.

Sample Courses:

History BC2401, Fascism in European History (Caglioti)

History BC1801, Colonialism and Nationalism in South Asia (Rao)

History BC2440, Intro to African-American History (Naylor)

History BC 2477, Politics of Crime and Policing (Vaz)

History BC3670, Seeking Asylum (Milanich)

History BC3505, Building Worker Power (Nadasen)

History BC3692, Anarchism: A Global History (Moya)

History BC2321, Colonial Encounters (Tiersten)

History BC3770, African Communities in NY (George)

Focuses on the economic, social, political, and cultural encounters fostered by imperial expansion and decline. Explores issues such as the complex relationship between metropolitan and colonial societies, the circulation of peoples, goods, and ideas through imperial networks, great power rivalries, the intimate lived experience of colonization, forms of resistance, and the impact of empire on the postcolonial world.

Sample courses:

History BC1760, Introduction to African History: 1700 to Present (George)

History BC1801, Colonialism and Nationalism in South Asia

History BC2180, Merchants, Pirates and Slaves

History BC2321, Colonial Encounters: Europe and the Culture of Empire (Tiersten)

History BC2366, Climate and History 

History BC2494, Era of Independence in the Americas

History BC2855, Decolonization: Studies in Political Thought & Political

History BC2803, Gender and Empire

History BC3370, Science, Environment & European Colonialism

History BC3763, Childhood and Youth in African History

History UN2719, History of the Modern Middle East

History UN3235, Central Asia: Imperial Legacies, New Images

History UN3434, Atlantic Slave Trade

HSEA UN3869, Modern Japan, 1800 to the Present

Historically examines the cultural, economic, social, legal, and political constructions of race and ethnicity within and across different societies. Considers why these categories were created, how they emerged and functioned across different temporal and spatial contexts, and how they have been deployed and resisted intranationally and internationally. Topics include racial slavery; scientific racism; constructions of whiteness; interlocking ideologies of class, gender and ethno-racial constructions; social movements; immigration and citizenship; nationalism, patriotism, and nationhood.

Sample courses:

History BC1101, European History 1500-1789 (Valenze)

History BC1760, Introduction to African History 1700-Present (George)

History BC2321, Colonial Encounters (Tiersten)

History BC2380, The Social and Cultural History of Food in Europe (Valenze)

History BC2440, Introduction to African-American History (Naylor)

History BC2500, Poverty, Race, and Gender

History BC2567, Women, Race, and Class

History BC2676, Latin America: Migration, Race, Ethnicity

History UN2719, Modern Middle East (Khalidi)

History BC2802, Gender and Empire (Rao)

History UN2811, South Asia II: Empire and Its Aftermath (Rao)

History BC2980, World Migration (Moya)

History BC3360, London: From 'Great Wen' to World City

History BC3599, Remembering Slavery: Critiquing Modern Representations of the Peculiar Institution

History BC3658, Jewish Immigrants & Cities

HSEA GU4160, Cultures in Colonial Korea (Hughes)

HSEA UN1365, Introduction East Asian Civilization: Tibet

HSEA GU4017, Ethnography and Representation in Tibet

History UN2689 Colonial Cities of the Americas, c. 1500-1800

History BC2405 Spatial History of 19th-Century New York City

History BC2408 Emerging Cities: 19th-century Urban History of the Americas and Europe

CSER UN3928 Colonization/Decolonization (Nagai)

History UN3928 Slavery and Abolition in the Atlantic World (Lightfoot)

HSME UN2915 Africa Before Colonialism (Diouf)

History UN1488 Indigenous History of North America (Witgen)

History UN3518 Columbia University and Slavery (Jacoby)

History UN2679 Atlantic Slave Trade (Brown)

History UN2003 Empire and Nation Building (Mazurek)

ARCH GU4250 Colonial Practices (Siddiqi)

Explores the political, economic, social, and cultural history of women cross-culturally and examines gender, the socially constructed differences between women and men, as a central element of power relations.  Coursework engages with topics such as: sexuality, colonialism and empire, labor, reproduction, race, consumerism, citizenship, migration, childhood, the body, the state, and feminism.

Sample courses:

History BC2380, Social and Cultural History of Food in Europe (Valenze)

History BC2500, Poverty, Race, and Gender (Nadasen)

History BC2567, Women, Race, and Class

History BC2664, Families in Latin America (Milanich)

History BC3327, Consumer Culture in Modern Europe (Tiersten)

History BC3870, Gender and Migration (Moya)

History UN2533, US Lesbian and Gay History (Chauncey)

History UN3334, Marriage and Morals among the Victorians (Pedersen)

History BC3475, Covid and Care Work (Nadasen)

History BC3500, Maids and Madams (Nadasen)

WGSS BC1050, Women and Health (Jordan-Young)

WGSS BC2150, Intersectional Feminisms (Jordan-Young)

WGSS BC2140, Critical Approaches in Social and Cultural Studies (Solomon)

WGSS BC3131, Women and Science (Kay)

ME UN3000, Theory and Culture (Mukherjee)

Examines the historical specificity of markets, money, property, and labor relations and explores the interdependence between the economy and politics, society, and culture. In addition to asking how and why economic systems change, students will also examine how philosophers, politicians, and other historical actors, have theorized and sought to change economic relations.

Sample Courses:

History BC2101, History of Capitalism (Wennerlind)

History UN2222, Nature and Power (Jacoby)

History UN2336, Everyday Communism (Mazurek)

History BC2321, Colonial Encounters (Tiersten)

History UN2679, Atlantic Slave Trade (Brown)

History BC3177, Scarcity: Economy and Nature (Wennerlind)

History UN332, Consumer Culture in Modern Europe (Tiersten)

History BC3360, London: ‘Great Wen” to World City​ (Valenze)

History UN3387, Beyond Capitalism (​Raine)

History BC3508, Colonial Gotham (Lipman)

History UN3571, Left and Right in American History (Phillips-Fein)

History BC3864, Feast/Famine in China (Ko)

History UN3928, Slavery and Abolition in the Atlantic World (Lightfoot)

History UN3982, The Quantified State (Steingart)

History GU4397, Nationalism and Revolution in modern Ireland (Stafford)

History GU4512, Property and Power in 20th Cent. US (Blackmar)

The thematic concentration in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine aims at analyzing science as a social and cultural product that changed over time and in different societies. In addition to the development of scientific ideas, the concentration will enable students to understand the relationship between scientific practices, politics, and society. Classes in this concentration include a wide range of topics, spanning from changing notions of nature and scientific discovery to the intersection between science and food, race, climate, gender and sexuality, and politics.

Sample Courses:

History BC2366, Climate & History. Intersecting Science, Environment and Society (Caglioti)

History BC2380, The Social and Cultural History of Food in Europe (Valenze)

History BC2402, Science and Society:  From Galileo to Climate Change (Carnes)

History BC3177, Scarcity: Economy and Nature (Wennerlind)

History BC3370, Science, Environment, and European Colonialism (Caglioti)

History BC3301, Science and Fascism (Caglioti)

WGSS BC4308, Sexuality and Science (Jordan-Young)

WGSS W4311, Feminism and Science Studies (Jordan-Young)

History UN2972, Unsettling Science (Whitman)

History UN2978, Science and Pseudoscience: Alchemy to AI (Smith)

History UN3048, Pandemics: A Global History (Sivaramakrishnan)

History UN3769, “Health and Healing in Africa” (Stephens)

History W3103, Alchemy, Magic, and Science (Smith)

History W4120, Witchcraft and the State in Early Modern Europe (Smith)

Investigation of the formation of a unique hybrid culture involving people and places touching the Atlantic, including Europe, Africa, the Americas, and the Caribbean Islands.  Focus may include commercial ventures, political and religious impulses, revolutions, migrations, slavery, and the movement of ideas, technology, animals, crops, goods, and germs.

Sample courses:

CSER UN1040, Critical Approaches to the Study of Ethnicity and Race

ARS BC2006, Introduction to African Diaspora (Walker)

History BC2180, Merchants, Pirates and Slaves

History BC2321, Colonial Encounters: Europe and the Culture of Empire (Tiersten)

History BC2424, Early American Maritime History

History BC2440, Introduction to African American History (Naylor)

History BC2483, Revolutionary America, 1763-1800 (Lipman)

History BC2549, Early America to 1763 

History UN3434, Atlantic Slave Trade (Brown)

History BC3508, Colonial Gotham: History of New York City 1609-1776 (Lipman)

History BC3549, A History of Violence: Force and Power in Early America

History UN2660, Latin American Civilization I/Colonial Latin America (Pizzigoni)

History UN2661, Latin American Civilization II/Modern Latin America (Salgado)

ECON BC3103, Economic History of the US: From Colonial Settlement to the Great Merger

The study of religious institutions, movements, and belief systems, including the formation and maintenance of affiliations; debates over leadership and gender; reform, resistance, and rebellion in relation to religious institutions and power; involvement in philanthropy, military or missionary colonial projects; debates over gender, sexuality, and the family; humanitarianism and social activism.

Sample courses:

History BC3788, Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Africa

History UN2716, History of Islamic Society

History UN3434, Atlantic Slave Trade

History UN2616, Jews and Christians in the Medieval World

History UN2405, Chinese Religious Traditions

History BC2803, Gender and Empire

ASCM UN4400, God in Muslim Life

RELI UN2615, Religions of Harlem

History UN3180, Religious Conversion in Historical Perspective

History BC2321, Colonial Encounters (Tiersten)

Prior to capitalism, industrialization, and globalization, a diverse array of social forms existed around the globe. Multiple empires and civilizations, including the Roman Empire, Mongol Empire, Mali Empire, Byzantine Empire, and Aztec (Mexica) Empire, created unique societies, economies, polities, and cultures. Each civilization had its own religious, artistic, and intellectual traditions. Multiple courses offer students a rich and sophisticated understanding of the many different ways in which the world was organized prior to the seventeenth-century. 

Sample courses:

History UN1004, Ancient History of Egypt (Van de Mieroop)

History UN1010, Ancient Greek History, 800-146 BC (Billows)

History UN2072, Daily Life in Medieval Europe (Senocak)

History UN2611, Jews and Judaism in Antiquity (Schwartz)

History UN3021, The Greek Invention of History (Billows)

History UN3023, Mobility and Identity in the Roman World (Ramgopal)

History UN3180, Religious Conversion in History (Carlebach)

History UN3712, African Climate and History (Stephens and Smerdon)

History UN3803, The Mughal Memoirs (Ahmed)

History UN3930, Eastern Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age (Van de Mieroop)

History GU4610, Jews in Ancient Mediterrean (Schwartz)

Middle East UN2915, Africa before Colonialism (Diouf)

East Asia UN3773, Music in Premodern China (Berge-Becker)

East Asia UN3898, The Mongols in History (Rossabi)

East Asia GU4027, Issues in Early Chinese Civilization (Li)

Explores rapid and dramatic social and political change that affects the lives of millions, leaving little as it was before. Examines topics such gender relations in wartime; techniques of mass mobilization; the role of new technologies in wartime; emergence of the fiscal-military state and its relation to revolution; patterns of revolution and reaction.

Sample courses:

History BC1801, Colonialism and Nationalism in South Asia  

History BC2321, Colonial Encounters (Tiersten)

History BC2255, Democracy and Dictatorship: Italy, the Balkans, and Turkey Between the Two World Wars

History BC2375, Fascism in European History (Caglioti)

History BC2482, Revolutionary America 1763-1815 (Lipman)

History UN2661, Modern Latin America (Lat Am Civ II) (Salgado)

History BC3672, Perspectives on Power in 20th Century Latin America

History BC2803, Gender and Empire

History BC3953, Anarchism, a Global History (Moya)

History UN2997, World War II in History and Memory 

History UN3923, Narratives of World War II

History BC3130, Failed Empire: Sweden in the Early Modern World

HSEA UN3898, Mongols in History (Rossabi)

HSEA UN3927, China in the Modern World (Liu)

Aims to provide a broad view of human history that goes beyond national narratives and boundaries to explore the circulation of people, goods, ideas and practices and the processes those meetings produce at a global scale.

Sample courses:

History BC1801, Colonialism and Nationalism in South Asia

History BC2101, History of Capitalism

History BC2255, Democracy and Dictatorship: Italy, the Balkans, and Turkey Between the Two World Wars

History BC2321, Colonial Encounters (Tiersten)

History BC2366, Climate ＆ History: Intersecting Science, Environment ＆ Society

History BC2408, Emerging Cities: 19th Century Urban History of the Americas and Europe

History BC2676, Latin America: Migration, Race, and Ethnicity

History BC2681, Women and Gender in Latin America

History BC2803, Gender and Empire

History BC2855, Decolonization: Studies in Political Thought and Political History

History BC2978, 20th Century Cities: Americas and Europe

History BC2980, World Migration (Moya)

History BC3301, Science and Fascism

History BC3370, Science, Environment and European Colonialism

History BC3500, Maids and Madams: Nannies, Maids, and Care Workers in a Global Economy

History BC3658, Jewish Immigrant Experience in New York, Buenos Aires, Paris, and London

History BC3666, Origin Stories: Race, Genealogy, and Citizenship

History BC3692, Anarchism: A Global History (Moya)

History BC3805, Caste, Power, and Inequality

History BC3842, Subaltern Urbanism: South Asia

History BC3870, Gender & Migration: A Global Perspective (Moya)

History BC3905, Capitalism, Colonialism, and Culture: A Global History

History BC3910, Global Politics of Reproduction: Culture, Politics, and History

History BC3973, 20th Century Cities: Americas and Europe

Environmental Studies is an interdisciplinary inquiry; this concentration field aims at equipping students with a historical perspective on the environmental issues we face in the contemporary world. Understanding such global issues as climate change, food security, and sustainability requires a perspective that transcends the boundary of the nation state and the experience of modernity. This concentration field is designed for those who seek to dig deep in time and reach far beyond our comfort zone in space.

Sample Courses:

History BC2380, History of Food in Europe (Valenze)

History BC3379, Water Histories: Society, Environment, and Power in Global History (Caglioti)

History BC3864, Feast and Famine: Food and Environment in Chinese History (Ko)

History UN1488, Indigenous History of North America (Witgen)

History UN2222, Nature and Power: Environmental History of North America (Jacoby)

History UN3529, Landscape of American Modernity (Blackmar)

History UN3712, African Climate and History (Stephens and Smerdon)

History GU4811, Encounters with Nature: History & Politics of Environment, Health & Development in South Asia & Beyond (Shivaramakrishman)

East Asian GU4615, Tibetan Rivers and Roads: Infrastructure (Hartley)

East Asian GU4735, Climate History of the Tibetan Plateau (Tuttle)

East Asian GU4822, Troubled Islands of the Indo-Pacific (Kreitman)

Architecture UN3120, City, Landscape, and Ecology (Ghoche)