Undergraduate
200 Level Courses (2023-2024)
Course Nomenclature
- H1-F = "First Term"; the first term of the Fall/Winter Session (September - December)
- H1-S = "Second Term"; the second term of the Fall/Winter Session (January - April)
- Y1-Y = full session (September - April)
- Students should note that courses designated as "...Y1F" or "...Y1S" in the Timetable are particulary demanding.
200-level HIS courses are surveys that introduce in broad outlines the history of a particular country, region, continent, or theme. Most are essential background for further upper-level study in the area. Students will generally attend two lectures and participate in one tutorial each week. The 200-level courses are open to first year students as well as those in higher years.
The Department regularly offers a number of HIS299Y1 Research Opportunity Programs, which are open only to students in their second year. In this course, you work as a Research Assistant to a professor on a particular subject. In past years, students in HIS299Y1 courses have done oral history interviews, sought out manuscripts in provincial archives, and gathered primary source documents in the university libraries. Students in their first year should check with the Faculty Registrar in February for the list of ROPs that will be offered in the following academic year.
HIS 200H1-F, L5101 Drunk History
Histories of wine or beer or vodka often focus either on the production of these alcoholic beverages and their role in national or local economies, or on the ways that drinking is part of celebration. But drunkenness enters the historical record in other ways, too—not just as a social lubricant but as a social ill, one associated with intimate violence or violence to the self and with mass protest. From worries about the Gin Craze to race-based restrictions on consumption, from tax policies to policing, this class will consider the many ways that drunkenness has been accepted, denounced, and legislated in societies around the world.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instruction: J. Guo
Lecture: Thursday 5-7
Tutorials: TBA
HIS205H1-S, L0101 From Women’s History to Gender History
This course critically examines gender in the context of politics, society, culture, and economics across a range of comparative times and spaces depending on instructor expertise. In what ways have gendered norms and transgressions been part of human societies and lived experiences? How have those norms shifted across historical and geographical contexts? How has the history of gender impacted gender as it is lived and made political today? Throughout the course, we will be querying the theoretical assumptions underlying and framing the historical texts we are studying, as well as assessing the different kinds of primary sources used to recover women’s and gender history.
Exclusion: HIS245Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instruction: F. Aladejebi
Lecture: Tuesday 1-3
Tutorials: TBA
HIS 208Y1Y, L0101 History of the Jewish People
This course explores the origins of the Jewish people, beginning with the Bible and ending in the 21st Century. We will follow the development of Jewish social and cultural life across the Muslim and Christian worlds and discuss how Jews adapted to the constraints and opportunities provided by the non-Jewish majority. We will also learn about key Jewish books and concepts, including the Talmud, Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), Halakhah (Jewish law), and Jewish philosophy. Finally, we will investigate the Jewish movements that arose in response to the challenges of modernity and new ideologies.
Recommended Preparation: HIS102Y1/HIS103Y1/HIS109Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instruction: A. Verskin
Lecture: Wednesday 1-3
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: a
Temporal Requirement: ½ credit
HIS 218H1-S, L0101 Environmental History
A lecture-based course designed to introduce students to key moments and concepts in the field of environmental history since c. 1400. This course will track the reciprocal influence of humans and the non-human world since the so-called "Columbian Exchange," emphasizing the ways in which the non-human world-from plants, animals, and disease organisms to water, topography, and geography- have shaped human endeavours. At the same time, students will engage with many of the ways in which human beings have shaped the world around us, from empire and colonization, to industrial capitalism, nuclear power, and modern wildlife conservation.
Prerequisites: any 100-level History course
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instruction: A. Logue
Lecture: Thursday 1-3
Tutorials: TBA
HIS 220Y1-Y, L0101 The Shape of Medieval Society
"The European middle ages spanned the centuries between the fall of the Roman Empire--one of the greatest, largest, and wealthiest empires in history--and the beginnings of modernity. We will study the main events and personalities of the period, but the focus will be on making real the experience of being a medieval person: a peasant, maid, merchant, or knight; a Viking warrior, a queen, a nun, a monk or the emperor. You will gain some insight into what separates our experience of life from those of people in this era, but equally how much you share with our ancestors of a millennium ago."
Exclusion: HIS220Y5/HIS220H5/HIS221H5/HISB60H3/HISB61H3
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: I Cochelin
Lecture: Tuesday & Thursday 12-1
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: c
Temporal Requirement: 1 credit
HIS 221H1-F, L5101 African American History to 1865
An introduction to the history of Africans and people of African descent in the Americas generally, and the United States in particular. Major themes include modernity and the transatlantic slave trade; capitalism and reparations; Atlantic crossings; African women, gender, and racial formations; representation, resistance, and rebellion; nation-building; abolitionism and civil war; historical method and the political uses of the past.
Exclusion: HIS298Y1 (2016-17)
Recommended Preparation: Any 100-level course in Arts or Humanities
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: K. Grant
Lecture: Tuesday 5-7
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: b
HIS 222H1-S, L5101 African American History from 1865 to the Present
This course examines the history of black people in the United States after the abolition of slavery. Major themes include the promise and tragedy of Reconstruction; gender and Jim Crow; race and respectability; migration, transnationalism, and 20th century black diasporas; black radical traditions and freedom movements; intersectionality and black feminisms; the drug war and mass incarceration; sexuality and the boundaries of blackness.
Exclusion: HIS 298Y1 (2016-17)
Recommended Preparation: Any 100-level course in Arts or Humanities
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: C. Johnson
Lecture: Tuesday 5-7
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: b
HIS 230H1-F, L0101 Indigenous and Early Colonial Caribbean History
This course introduces students to the study of Caribbean history from first human settlement to the late 18th century. Subject matter covered includes indigenous social structures, cosmology, and politics; the process of European conquest; the economics, society, and political order of colonial society; the Middle Passage; the everyday lives and struggles of enslaved peoples.
Exclusion: HIS294Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: M. Newton
Lecture: Wednesday 11-1
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: b
Temporal Requirement: ½ credit
HIS 241H1-F, L0101 Europe in the Nineteenth Century, 1815-1914
This course introduces students to major themes in European history over the ‘long’ nineteenth century, from the time of Napoleon to the First World War. The themes covered will be quite wide ranging. Topics include: the genesis of modern political language (liberalism, conservatism, socialism, nationalism), industrialization and the "social question," nationalism and the revolutions of 1848, imperialism, colonialism and ideas of race, militarism, the rise of labor movements, the suffragette movements, and the origins of the world war. The course will focus on both domestic developments and foreign policy. While the lectures will concentrate on political history, the course emphasizes the importance of multiple approaches to historical problems. A film club is included (voluntary, for extra credit) and students are encouraged to attend.
Attendance at lectures, tutorial participation, reading, research, and writing are all essential components of the course. In the tutorials, students will discuss a variety of primary sources, including novels, essays, and public speeches. Students will also work closely with tutors with regard to the preparation of a term essay.
Exclusion: EUR200Y1/EUR200Y5/FGI200Y5/HIS241H5/HISB93H3
Recommended Preparation: HIS103Y1/HIS109Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: J. Jenkins
Lecture: Tuesday & Thursday 1-2
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: c
HIS 242H1-F, L0101 Europe in the 20th Century
This course focuses on the political transformation of Europe from 1914 to the present day, and also surveys cultural, social, and economic developments. Lectures will cover an array of events and themes, from the two world wars, to the Russian Revolution, the rise and fall of fascism and the Third Reich, the Cold War, the collapse of communism, the building of new states, and the evolution of the European Union. Special attention will be paid throughout to themes relating to war, nationalism, and statecraft, and to key European leaders, including Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Franco, De Gaulle, Thatcher, Gorbachev, and Merkel.
Exclusion: EUR200Y1/EUR200Y5/FGI200Y5/HIS242H5/HISB94H3
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: A. Kasekamp
Lecture: Monday 3-5
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: c
HIS 243H1-F, L0101 Early Modern Europe, 1450- 1648
Modern European society developed as a consequence of the dramatic changes which occurred in the period between the Renaissance and the end of the Thirty Years' War. The revival of classical ideas and principles revolutionized art and architecture, and provided new models for education, politics, law, science, and social organization. The religious movements within Christendom that divided Protestants and Catholics and set both against Jews and Muslims sent waves of refugees across Europe and globe and generated new ideas about how religion and politics combined. The Economic changes in Europe and Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean sent European merchants, soldiers, and missionaries beyond the confines of the continent. As capitalism and colonialism combined, enslavement became a wider practice, generating more exclusionary ideas of race. This course will follow these changes, with special attention given to the intellectual and cultural forces that motivated Europeans to undertake a fundamental re-evaluation of their ambitions and identities.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: N. Terpstra
Lecture: Tuesday & Thursday 2-3
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: c
Temporal Requirement: ½ credit
HIS 244H1-S, L5101 Early Modern Europe, 1648-1815
This course will survey the history of Europe from the Thirty Year’s War to the Napoleonic Empire. We will explore the principal themes which transformed Europe during this period: the birth of the modern nation-state; the increasing scale of warfare; the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment; the emergence of capitalist economies; the consolidation of transatlantic colonial empires; and the French Revolution. Students will read a range of primary and secondary source materials; attendance at lectures, participation in tutorials, course reading, and writing are all required components for this course.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: J. Mori
Lecture: Thursday 5-7
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: c
Temporal Requirement: ½ credit
HIS 245H1-F, L5101 European Colonialism, 1700-1965
This class will introduce students to the history of European colonialism. It will analyze the nature of colonial rule, the impact of empire on both colonies and metropoles, and delve into questions of power, gender, and culture. It considers slavery and abolition, imperial networks, colonial capital, colonial competition, colonial cultures, the twilight of colonial rule, and a variety of settings.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: E. Jennings
Lecture: Thursday 9-11
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: c
HIS 247H1-S, L0101 The Second World War: A Global History
This course offers an introduction to the global history of the Second World War. It aims to expose students to historiographical debates regarding the war, the use of primary sources, and the scholarly and intellectual challenges that come with studying an event of this magnitude and horror. In general, students will examine the origins and causes of the conflict, survey the factors that shaped the course of the war, and consider how and why the fighting came to an end when it did. These broad approaches will be supplemented with consideration of specific examples from around the world.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: T. Sayle
Lecture: Monday 1-3
Tutorials: TBA
HIS 264H1-F, L0101 Critical Issues in Canadian History
This course introduces the history of Canada through an exploration of key themes and methods. It will cover several time periods, but it is not a standard survey class. Rather, we will focus on some the key forces that shaped Canada over time, and we will look at competing interpretations of Canadian history. We will also study some of the important skills of historical research and writing. Possible topics include First Nations, immigration, language, empire, nationalism, and culture. All students are welcome, but a key aim of the course is to help prepare students for upper year Canadian History courses.
Exclusion: HIS262H1, HIS263Y1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: S. Penfold
Lecture: Tuesday 3-5
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: b
HIS 265Y1-Y, L0101 Black Canadian History
This course explores the historical experiences of persons of African descent in Canada. We begin by examining the presence of free and enslaved Africans in New France and British North America, moving into twentieth century themes exploring Black liberation, immigration, and resistance in Canada. The course brings into sharp focus the historical production of racial categories and racist thought and practice in Canada and examines the experiences of Black Canadians within the context of ‘multiculturalism.’
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: F. Aladejebi
Lecture: Wednesday 1-3
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: b
HIS266H1-F, L0101 Asian Canadian History
Introduces the history of Asian Canadians through focus on their lives, voices, and choices. Students will analyse Asian Canadian contributions to Canada’s socio-cultural, economic, and political development. Students also will investigate how Asian Canadian history reconfigures prevailing understanding of race, migration, multiculturalism, and national identity through intersectional, comparative, and transnational frameworks.
Exclusion: CDN230H1, UNI230H1
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: K. Song-Nichols
Lecture: Monday 11-1
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: b
HIS 268H1-S, L0101 Law and History
The Federal Interpretation Act of Canada states that the ‘law is always speaking’. If the law is always speaking, then it must be speaking in present tense. But if it only speaks in present tense, does it have a past? How might we consider the field of law from different historical angles? This course will introduce students to different historical approaches to and uses of law. Using examples from a wide array of legal traditions (e.g. Common Law, Civil Law, Indigenous Law, Islamic Law), the course will help students gain a greater appreciation for the function, study, and development of law across different times and places.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: A. Emon
Lecture: Wednesday 11-1
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: a/b
HIS 271Y1-Y, L5101 American History Since 1607
Designed to introduce students to a broad range of American history, this course surveys the political and economic, as well as the social and cultural history of the United States from first contact between Europeans and Native peoples through the turn of the 21st century. Topics covered include: the development of colonial America, the emergence and growth of the American nation; slavery, sectional conflict and the Civil War; the development of modern America; the rise of the liberal state and the conservative counter-offensive; efforts by minority groups at overcoming their second-class status; and, America’s rise to international predominance. Overarching themes include the evolution of race and gender identities, as well as the ongoing struggle within the United States to live up to its founding principles of equality and inalienable rights.
Exclusion: HIS271H5/HIS272H5/HISB30H3/HISB31H3
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: J. Bayer
Lecture: Monday 5-7
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: b
Temporal Requirement: ½ credit
HIS 280Y1-Y, L5101 History of China
Does China have “five thousand years of continuous history”? We will explore this deceptively simple question in this introduction to the history of what is now China from before the development of writing to the present. No previous knowledge is required. In addition to covering basic information about chronology and environment, this course will be organized around some key tensions:
- Material life and popular culture vs. ideal norms and elite culture
- Changes vs. continuities: when did key watersheds occur, and what were their consequences?
- “Chinese” societies vs. their neighbors, especially the nomadic peoples of the northern steppes
- People vs. nature–physical modifications to the environment over time
- People vs. their bodies– gender, sexuality, and families
By the end of the course, we will have explored not just what we know, but how we know about China’s history. You will be introduced to the practice of reading primary historical documents in translation, with a view to how historians use them to produce knowledge about the past.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: C. Chung
Lecture: Wednesday 5-7
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: a
Temporal Requirement: ½ credit
HIS 285H1-S, L0101 History of Chinese Diasporas in the Americas
Explores histories of ethnic Chinese and Chinese diasporas in the Americas, especially in Canada and the United States. Investigates events from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Topics include migrations, diasporas, transnationalism, identities, families, communities, cultures, and racialization, as well as relations with their host societies and with China.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: L. Mar
Lecture: Monday 11-1
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: b
HIS 286H1-S, L0101 Oral Histories of Asian Canadians
Oral history explores the past through peoples’ voices, memories and testimonies. The course will explore oral histories of Asian Canadians, especially in Greater Toronto, as a way to investigate Asian Canadian experiences of the most recent half century. Students will explore diverse community oral traditions. They also will study and practice generating new oral histories through dialogue. Often the class will interpret select Asian Canadian oral testimonies about Toronto and Canada as part of a collective course project to better understand the perspectives of growing Asian Canadian populations in recent decades. Students also will assess oral history’s strengths and limitations as an accessible means to create new archives of otherwise under-studied populations.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: L. Mar
Lecture: Thursday 11-1
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: b
HIS 291H1-F, L0101 Latin America: The Colonial Period
The evolution of Spanish and Portuguese America from pre-Columbian civilizations to the wars of independence.
Exclusion: HIS291Y1/ HIS290H5
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: V. Mantilla Morales
Lecture: Tuesday & Thursday 11-12
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: b
Temporal Requirement: ½ credit
HIS 292H1-S, L0101 Latin America: The National Period
A survey of Latin American history from the wars of independence to the present day.
Exclusion: HIS292Y1/HIS290H5
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
Instructor: L. van Isschot
Lecture: Tuesday & Thursday 11-12
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: b
HIS 295Y1-Y, L0101 History of Africa
An introduction to African history and the methodology of history more broadly, this course sets out to question how historians do history, examine differences in theories of knowledge, and explore the relationship between academic and cultural representations of the past. The course also draws on anthropology and related disciplines.
Exclusion: HIS381H1/HIS382H1/HIS295H5
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1), Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
Instructor: S. Hawkins
Lecture: Monday 1-3
Tutorials: TBA
Geographic Area: a
Temporal Requirement: ½ credit