Admission requirements
There are no prerequisites for this course. This course gives entry to the 200-level courses in the Human Interaction major.
Description
History as a professional academic discipline developed in tandem with the rise of the modern nation-state, and traditionally has served as one of its most significant ideological supports. This course, by contrast, explores aspects of the human past that transcend any single nation-state, empire, or politically-bounded territory. Together we will study a range of important social formations: from the international circulation of commodities and ideas, to diasporas and the development of migratory networks, to the challenges of communicable disease and environmental change, to the proliferation of transnational social movements and NGOs. Studying these interrelated phenomena will yield a richer understanding of the interconnectedness of human history, and of the long-standing (yet by no means linear) processes of globalization. Transnational history also multiplies the foci of traditional historical study from the state alone to a variety of non-state actors and institutions. Finally, a transnational approach does not deny the significance of nations and empires; rather, it allows us to place national and imperial developments in a rich historical context.
Course objectives
This course offers a introduction to key themes in modern global history. Its core aim is to train students to think historically about social, economic, and political phenomena that continue to shape our world today. To that end, we will aim to master the “five C’s” of historical thinking—context, change over time, causality, contingency, and complexity—and we will ponder the ways that historical methodologies both compliment and differ from other disciplinary approaches in the humanities and social sciences. Students will become practiced in the art of historiographical argument, by collecting, evaluating, comparing, and synthesizing the varied (and often conflicting) views of other scholars. They will hone these skills through reading exercises, classroom debate, oral presentations, and formal historiographical writing.
Timetable
Please see the LUC website: www.lucthehague.nl
Mode of instruction
This course will proceed primarily as a seminar, meeting for two 2-hour sessions per week. Each class will center on the discussion of an assigned reading, with introductory remarks by the professor and brief student presentations of supplementary texts. In addition to contributing informal web responses to a blackboard site before class, students will write two formal essays. The first essay (1200-1500 words) will provide a brief review of selected readings from the syllabus. The final essay (2500-3000 words) will offer a more in-depth historiographical analysis, and will give students an opportunity to do additional reading on a historical theme of their choice.
Assessment method
- Familiarity with central themes in transnational history and scholarly approaches to same; critical reading and thinking; analytical framing.: assessed through Active participation in weekly discussions, based on prior reading of literature, including web postings. (20% of final grade):Weekly
- Synthetic analysis and oral communication; asking the ‘right’ questions.: assessed through Class presentation of 10-15 minutes (20% of final grade): Once per block; each student selects a session; no presentations the week the first essay is due.
- Formal written historiographical analysis; cogent argumentation in relatively few pages.: assessed in Short essay (1200-1500 words;:20% of final grade) : due 30 September
- In-depth literature review, synthesis, and analysis.:assessed in Final essay (2500-3000 words; 40% of final grade): Week 8, date TBD.
Blackboard
This course is supported by a BlackBoard site
Reading list
There is no set textbook for the course. Assigned readings will be made available on blackboard and at the LUC e-library.
Registration
This course is only open for LUC The Hague students.
Contact information
Dr. Ann Marie Wilson: a.m.wilson@luc.leidenuniv.nl
Weekly Overview
Week 1 – Introductions, Expectations, Definitions, Stakes
Week 2 – Commodities
Week 3 – Migrants
Week 4 – Ideas
Week 5 – Nature
Week 6 – Social Movements
Week 7 – Institutions
Week 8 – Reading week (no classes)
Preparation for first session
none