Introduces students to historical method and perspective through comparative study of human societies and cultures. The concept of "civilization" is examined in varied contexts through comparisons of social, economic, and political institutions, as well as systems of thought and religion, from pre-history to around 1400.

Continuation of World Civilization; the study of World Civilizations from 1400 to the present.

Continuation of World Civilization; the study of World Civilizations from 1400 to the present.

Continuation of World Civilization; the study of World Civilizations from 1400 to the present.

How pre-modern European societies understood, represented, and enforced gender difference. A wide variety of source material - saints' lives and marriage contracts, sermons and law codes, guides for witch hunters and aristocratic portraits, medical treatises and mystical poetry - will be used to explore the changing answers to two basic questions: what makes a person a woman or a man, and how does this gender identity affect their lives in the world. Course content will move from the waning days of the Roman Empire through the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Reform. Cross-listed as WMS 316.

History of Europe from the waning days of the Roman Empire through the year 1000. Europeans in this period drew on the resources of three inherited cultural traditions to build and to understand their world - Romanitas (Roman traditions), and Germanitas (German traditions), and Christianitas (Christian traditions). The fusion of these three traditions - and their interactions with Judaism and Islam - gave rise to the rich and diverse civilization of Later Medieval Europe. Themes include the slow evolution of temporal power and ecclesiastical power; the complex interplay between official and popular religion; the changing understandings of nobility; the transformation of the economy; and the place of minorities in a sometimes hostile world. This course is the first in a two-semester sequence in medieval history.

History of Europe from the year 1000 to the end of the 14th century. Themes include: church reform; the dynamic of local power and state power; changing understandings of the sacred; the experiences of commoners in countryside and in city; later medieval culture; and relations between Christian Europe and the Islamic Middle East. This course is the second in a two-semester sequence in medieval history.

Traces the reformation movements of the 16th and 17th centuries, the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Reform. The various strands of this movement were attempts to provide an answer to the fundamental Christian problem: 'What must I do to be saved?' Students study the answers provided to this question by such thinkers as Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Ignatius Loyola. Students discuss how their ideas affected, and were affected by, contemporary social and political affairs, paying special attention to the appeal of their message to women, the urban working classes, and peasants.

Seminars will be offered variously in topics in European History. The writing of a substantial paper will be required. Content will vary with instructor; may be repeated with change of content. Cross-listed for JST and WMS when the content is appropriate.