History

  • CSUN History Department

Fall 2017 Undergraduate Course Descriptions

April 24, 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall 2017

A SPECIAL WORD REGARDING PROSEMINARS AND TUTORIALS

 

Please note that all Proseminars (497), Tutorials (498), are RESTRICTED classes.  This means that enrollment is by consent of the instructor only, and that you CANNOT enroll in them simply by asking for a permission number.  You must personally contact the professor so that he/she can determine whether your enrollment is appropriate given the particular content, approach, requirements, and level of the course.  Before contacting the professor, be sure you have read the description of the class provided below. The professor will then decide whether to give you a permission number.  Also, since these courses fill up quickly, DO NOT wait until your registration date (or even later) to contact the professor.  Do so as soon as you have determined that you wish to take the course.  Following these procedures will assist both you and your professors. 

History 497A  Proseminar: Travel Accounts: Myths, Lies and Images of “The Other”   Professor Patricia Juarez-Dappe   Wednesdays 7:00-9:45pm     SH288  

Throughout the world, travelers have left observations about peoples and places that are of interest to historians. Perceptions and misconceptions purveyed in early exploration accounts colored interpretations in subsequent centuries. By the early 19th century the literary genre fell within a firmly established tradition that perpetuated earlier images while adding new variations and embellishments. This course will examine the works left by European and North American travelers from the 16th to the early 20th century. After discussing recent scholarly literature on travel accounts, students will examine original written works left by diplomats, missionaries, women, military, and businessmen to uncover perceptions of outsiders to the region and understand the very process of representation and history. Please contact Professor Juarez-Dappe at pjuarez@csun.edu for questions on the course. 

History 497B Proseminar:  Time Traveling to Pre-Modern Europe    Professor Clementine Oliver   Mondays 1600-1845         SH288 

Using as our models scholarly works such as Keith Hopkins’ A World Full of Gods and Ian Mortimer’s The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England, this research seminar will direct students to write their own historically accurate time traveler’s guide (20 pages) to a particular moment in the pre-modern West.  Events or periods from the late Roman Empire to the Reformation will be considered fair game.  Please contact Professor Oliver at coliver@csun.edu

History 497C Travel and Migration in the Global Nineteenth Century    Dr. Richard Horowitz      Thursday 4pm      SH268

In 1872, Jules Verne published a fantastic tale about a man circumnavigating the globe in 80 days.  Less than twenty years later, American  reporter Nellie Bly managed the feat in 72.  In the second half of the nineteenth century new transportation and communications technologies brought the world together in unprecedented ways.  Railways crossed continents and steamships dramatically shortened the time one needed spend aboard ship.  In this age of mass transportation, women and men traveled the globe as never before.  For some it was to learn about the far off places and new technologies, for others it was diplomacy, still others it was about recreation.   Many more embarked on journeys of migration, seeking to escape economic need or political oppression, and hoping to flourish in new worlds. 

In this seminar we will examine travel and migration between 1865 and 1910.  In the first half of the course, we will read about the technologies of travel, the patterns  of human movement, and the constraints imposed on them.  In the second half of the course, each student will undertake an independent research project based on research in primary sources. Students interested in taking the class should email Dr. Horowitz

History 497D  Proseminar:    Dr. Josh Sides             Tuesdays 1600-1845       SH268 

This is a seminar on Los Angeles neighborhoods. In addition to conducting weekly readings on Los Angeles, students will conduct archival research, field research, and oral history interviews to reconstruct the history of one of LA's changing neighborhoods.  Please contact Dr. Sides at .

History 498C Tutorial:  The British Mandate in Palestine   Professor Jeffrey Auerbach        Thursdays 4-6:45 pm           SH279   

This intensive weekly reading tutorial explores the critical thirty-year period of British rule in Palestine from the First World War to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. It brings together two related topics and historical literatures: British Mandate rule in the Middle East, and the formation of the State of Israel. The course will therefore focus on two major questions: What was the nature of British rule in Palestine, and how did Zionists succeed in building a national home? Using primary and secondary sources, we will analyze the political, strategic, and cultural forces that led to the British presence in and subsequent withdrawal from Palestine; Jewish immigration and settlement practices; the emergence of a Palestinian national identity; and the onset of the Arab-Israeli conflict.    

History 498C Tutorial:  Ancient Greek and Latin Texts Related to Roman History        Professor Robert Cleve                   Wednesdays  1600-1845                    SH288 

A Greek or Latin text (in translation) of major historical significance to thehistory of ancient Roman Civilization will be assigned each week and will be the subject of discussion at the weekly class meeting.  The texts will include, but not be limited to the writings of Polybius, Sallust, Cicero, Julius Caesar, Livy, Josephus, Tactitus, Pliny the Elder and the Younger, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio.  The student will be required to submit a short one-page essay of each reading assignment regarding their impression of the text’s accuracy and value for the interpretation of the specific historical topic or period of the text.

History 498C  Tutorial:  The History of Soviet Film               Professor Miriam Neirick        Fridays  9:30am-12:5pm      SH288

This course examines the history of Soviet and post-Soviet Russian cinema. Students will view and discuss films that exemplify succeeding periods in Russia’s cinematic history, including the avant-garde experimental cinema of the 1920s, Stalin-era socialist realist musical comedies, wartime propaganda films, late Soviet films that document the crimes of the Soviet state and dramatize the disintegration of Soviet society, and the first post-Soviet Russian blockbusters. Students will also be asked to read criticism of the individual films, scholarship pertaining to the institutional history of the Soviet and post-Soviet Russian film industry, and primary documents relating to cinematic aesthetics and production.