Thematic Concentrations
The following are sample programs based on some of our most popular Concentration areas. You are also welcome to design your own Thematic Concentration in consultation with your adviser:
Sample Programs
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:
HIST BC2408
Emerging Cities: 19th Century Urban History of the Americas and Europe
HIST BC2978
20th Century Cities: Americas and Europe
HIST BC3360
London: From Great Wen to World City
HIST BC3830
Bombay/Mumbai and Its Urban Imaginaries
HIST BC3651
Jewish Tales from Four Cities: The Immigrant Experience in New York, Buenos Aires, Paris and London
HIST BC3456
The Craft of Urban History
HIST BC3323
The City in Europe
HIST UN2441
Making of the Modern American Landscape
HIST UN2575
Power and Place: Black Urban Politics
AMHS UN4462
Immigrant New York
URBS UN3308
Introduction to Urban Ethnographies
URBS UN3315
Metropolitics of Race and Place
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:
HIST BC2321
Colonial Encounters
HIST BC2366
Climate and History
HIST BC2062
Medieval Intellectual Life
HIST BC3301
Science & Fascism
HIST BC3909
History of Environmental Thinking
HIST UN2478
US Intellectual History
HIST BC3119
Capitalism and Enlightenment
HIST BC3064
Medieval Science and Society
HIST BC3370
Science, Environment & European Colonialism
HIST BC3324
Vienna and the Birth of the Modern
HIST UN3305
European Enlightenment
HIST UN3127
Enlightenment and its Critics
HIST UN3644
Modern Jewish Intellectual History
Investigates efforts by individuals, groups, and the state to claim, delineate, 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, as well as movements and ideas of civil and human rights contesting the power of the state and other authorities.
Sample courses:
HIST BC2321
Colonial Encounters: Europe and the Culture of Empire
HIST BC2323
European Women in the Age of Revolution
HIST BC2375
Fascism in European History
HIST BC2567
American Women in the 20th Century
HIST BC2805
Law and Society in South Asia
HIST BC3301
Science & Fascism
HIST BC3423
Origins of the Constitution
HIST BC3672
Perspectives on Power in 20th Century Latin America
HIST BC3788
Gender, Sexuality, & Power, Colonial to Contemporary Africa
HIST UN2330
Europe Since 1945
HIST UN2926
Historical Origins of Human Rights
HSEA UN4891
Law in Chinese History
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:
HIST BC1760
Introduction to African History: 1800 to Present
HIST BC1801
Colonialism and Nationalism in South Asia
HIST BC2180
Merchants, Pirates and Slaves
HIST BC2321
Colonial Encounters: Europe and the Culture of Empire
HIST BC2366
Climate and History
HIST BC2494
Era of Independence in the Americas
HIST BC2855
Decolonization: Studies in Political Thought & Political
HIST BC2803
Gender and Empire
HIST BC3370
Science, Environment & European Colonialism
HIST BC3763
Childhood and Youth in African History
HIST UN2719
History of the Modern Middle East
HIST UN3235
Central Asia: Imperial Legacies, New Images
HIST UN3434
Atlantic Slave Trade
HSEA UN3869
Modern Japan, 1800 to the Present
Examines the cultural, social, legal, and political construction of racial and ethnic differences in societies historically. Considers how these categories have emerged, how they have functioned in society, how they have been deployed by states, and how they have been resisted. Topics include racial slavery; scientific racism; the interaction of class, gender and ethno-racial constructions; social movements; immigration and citizenship; nationalism and nationhood.
Sample courses:
HIST BC2321
Colonial Encounters: Europe and the Culture of Empire
HIST BC2375
Fascism in European History
HIST UN2661
Latin American Civilization II
HIST BC2414
The United States in the World
HIST BC2440
Intro to African American History
HIST BC2803
Gender and Empire
HIST BC2676
Latin America: Migration, Race, and Ethnicity
HIST BC2855
Decolonization: Studies in Political Thought and Political History
HIST BC3370
Science, Environment & European Colonialism
HIST BC3651
Jewish Tales from Four Cities: The Immigrant Experience in New York, Buenos Aires, Paris and London
HIST BC3411
Race in the Making of the US
HIST BC3669
Inequalities: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Latin America
AFRS BC2510
Ethnicity and Food
AFRS BC3150
Race and Performance In The Caribbean
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:
HIST BC2803
Gender and Empire
HIST BC2664
Reproducing Inequalities: Families in Latin American History
HIST BC2567
American Women in the 20th Century
HIST BC2865
Gender and Power in China
HIST BC3327
Consumer Culture in Modern Europe
HIST BC3763
Children and Childhood in African History
HIST BC3788
Gender, Sexuality, and Power from Colonial to Contemporary Africa
HIST BC3861
Body Histories: The Case of Footbinding
HIST BC3879
Feminist Traditions in China
WMST BC3509
Gender, Knowledge and Science in Modern European History
WMST UN3915
Gender and Power in Transnational Perspective
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:
HIST UN3789
Poverty in Africa: Historical Perspectives
HIST BC3062
Medieval Economic Life and Thought ca. 1000-1500
HIST BC2116
Merchants, Pirates, and Slaves in the Formation of Atlantic Capitalism
HIST BC2180
Filthy Lucre
HIST UN3434
Atlantic Slave Trade
HIST BC2380
Social and Cultural History of Food in Europe
HIST BC2321
Colonial Encounters
HIST BC3327
Consumer Culture in Modern Europe
HIST BC3886
Fashion
HIST BC3905
Capitalism, Colonialism, and Culture: A Global History
HIST BC3669
Inequalities: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Latin America
HIST UN3008
Wealth and Poverty in the Classical World
Studies people’s dynamic interaction with nature, climate, and geography and explores the cultural, economic, political, and social contexts of science and technology. Students investigate how the natural world has deeply informed the development of human societies and in turn how societies have endeavored to change nature, climate, and the environment to suit their historically specific interests.
Sample Courses:
HIST BC2366
Climate and History
HIST BC2380
Introduction to the History of Modern Science since 1800
HSPB UN2950
Social History of American Public Health
HIST UN2103
Alchemy, Magic, and Science
HIST UN2544
Science and Technology in the United States from Franklin to Facebook
CSER UN2222
Nature and Power: Environmental History of North America
HIST BC3064
Medieval Science and Society
HIST BC3370
Science, Environment & European Colonialism
HIST UN3437
Poisoned Worlds: Corporate Behavior and Public Health
HIST UN3584
Race, Technology, and Health
HIST BC3909
History of Environmental History
HIST UN3911
Medicine and Western Civilization
INSM UN3940
Science Across Cultures
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:
ARS BC2006
Introduction to African Diaspora
CSER UN31040
Critical Approaches to the Study of Ethnicity and Race
HIST BC2180
Merchants, Pirates and Slaves
HIST BC2321
Colonial Encounters: European and the Culture of Empire
HIST BC2424
Early American Maritime History
HIST BC2440
Introduction to African American History
HIST UN3434
Atlantic Slave Trade
HIST UN2660
Latin American Civilization I/Colonial Latin America
HIST UN2661
Latin American Civilization II/Modern Latin America
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:
HIST BC3788
Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Africa
HIST UN2716
History of Islamic Society
HIST UN3434
Atlantic Slave Trade
HIST UN2616
Jews and Christians in the Medieval World
REL UN2405
Chinese Religious Traditions
HIST BC2803
Gender and Empire
ASCM UN4400
God in Muslim Life
REL UN2615
Religions of Harlem
HIST UN3180
Religious Conversion in Historical Perspective
HIST BC2321
Colonial Encounters
Explores the roots of the modern world and also considers ancient, medieval, and early modern societies around the globe on their own terms.
Sample courses:
HIST BC1062
Introduction to the Later Middle Ages
HIST BC1101
European History, 1500-1789
HIST BC2062
Medieval Intellectual Life
HIST BC2180
Merchants, Pirates, and Slaves
HIST UN2103
Alchemy, Magic, and Science
HIST UN1011
Ancient Greek History
HIST UN2072
Daily Life in Medieval Europe
HIST UN2810
History of South Asia I
HIST UN2611
Jews and Judaism in Antiquity
HIST UN2060
Laws of War in the Middle Ages
HIST UN2020
Roman Imperialism
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:
HIST BC1801
Colonialism and Nationalism in South Asia
HIST BC2321
Colonial Encounters
HIST BC2323
European Women in the Age of Revolution
HIST BC2375
Fascism in European History
HIST UN2661
Modern Latin America (Lat Am Civ II)
HIST BC3301
Science and Fascism
HIST BC3672
Perspectives on Power in 20th Century Latin America
HIST BC3901
Reacting to the Past, II
HIST BC3953
Anarchism, a Global History
HIST UN2060
Laws of War in the Middle Ages
HIST UN2903
History of the World from 1450 CE to the Present
HIST UN2997
World War II in History and Memory
HIST UN3923
Narratives of World War II
POLS UN3401
Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe
POLS UN3804
Civil Wars and International Interventions in Africa
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:
ARS BC2006
Introduction to African Diaspora
HIST BC2180
Merchants, Pirates and Slaves
HIST BC2321
Colonial Encounters
HIST BC2366
Climate and History
HIST BC2375
Fascism in European History
HIST UN2903
History of the World from 1450 CE to the Present
HIST UN2926
Historical Origins of Human Rights
HIST BC2980
World Migration
HIST BC3370
Science, Environment & European Colonialism
HIST UN3434
Atlantic Slave Trade
HIST BC3651
Jews in New York, Buenos Aires, Paris and London
HIST BC3870
Gender and Migration: A Global Perspective
HIST BC3905
Capitalism, Colonialism, and Culture: A Global History
HIST BC3953
Anarchism, a Global History
HIST UN2926
Historical Origins of Human Rights