Undergraduate Course Descriptions

History (HIS)

HIS 1301 History of the Arab World 3(3-0)
Pre-requisite: ENG 1302

This course covers the history of the Arab world from the rise of Islam to the present. It will take a social and cultural approach to understanding the different histories of Arab society. The course will attempt to balance political history and its focus on regimes and main events with long term social ands cultural transformations that are relevant to the ordinary peoples of the Arab world.

This is a University Core Course for the BBA, BAIS, BACS, BSHRD, BSGE, BSCSC, BSEMS

HIS 2301 Contemporary World History 3(3-0)
Pre-requisite: ENG 1302

This course will provide a broad overview of the major developments affecting different parts of the world in the modern era. Although much of the course will deal with the political, social, and cultural history of Europe as a historical catalyst in the ways in which modernity was shaped, special attention will be paid to the interactions between Europe and other geographical areas such as Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

This is a University Core Course for the BBA, BAIS, BACS, BSHRD, BSGE, BSCSC, BSEMS

HIS 2302 North Africa and the Middle East in the Twentieth Century 3(3-0)
Pre-requisite: HIS 1301 or HIS 2301

This covers the history of the Middle East and North Africa in the twentieth century. It will take a social and cultural approach to the understanding of different histories of both regions. The course will attempt to balance political history and its focus on regimes and main events with long term social and cultural transformations that are relevant to ordinary people.

This is a required Course in the North African and Middle Eastern Studies Concentration for the BAIS

HIS 3301 Twentieth Century International History 3(3-0)
Pre-requisite: HIS 1301 or HIS 2301

This course aims to survey world history in the twentieth century from a specifically international perspective - looking at war, diplomacy and cooperation between states. The origins, courses and outcomes of the two world wars of the century will be studied as will all other conflicts that helped shape the international scene. The rise of the superpowers and the Cold War will be examined together with the various efforts at international co-operation such as the League of Nations, the United Nations the European Union and NATO.

This is an International Studies Major Core for the BAIS
This is a Minor in International Studies

HIS 3302 Europe from Vienna to Yalta 3(3-0)
Pre-requisite: HIS 2301

This course provides a historical survey of Europe from the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15 through to the Yalta Conference in 1945. Beginning with the Treaty of Vienna, the course will look at developments in Europe in the nineteenth century: the revolutions of 1848, the rise of nationalism and the unification of Italy and Germany. In the twentieth century the course will address the origins, course and effects of the two world wars in Europe as well as the rise of communism, Fascism and Nazism.

This is an optional Course in the European Studies Concentration for the BAIS

HIS 3310 Contemporary Moroccan History 3(3-0)
Pre-requisite: HIS 1301

This course seeks to trace the history of Morocco during the 19th and 20th centuries and to look at the challenges that are facing the country in the 21st century. After an overview of the pre-colonial period, the course will concentrate mainly on the colonial and postcolonial periods. Taking into consideration the political and economic history of Moroccan society since the advent of colonialism to the present, this course will also attempt to deal with the social and cultural history of ordinary people and the way they were affected by different historical forces. The students will be introduced to various themes, such as, the colonial encounter, rural and urban resistance, nationalism, working class history, women’s history, democracy and the challenge of globalization.

This is an optional Course in the North African and Middle Eastern Studies Concentration for the BAIS

HIS 3311 Algeria since Independence 3(3-0)
Pre-requisite: Junior Classification

This course surveys the political and economic development of Algeria since its achievement of independence from France in 1962. The foundations of the Algerian state in and before the struggle for independence will be examined as will be the state-building policies of independent Algeria's first two presidents: Ahmed Ben Bella and Houari Boumedienne. The growing economic difficulties and their political consequences in the 1980s will be considered as will be the crisis of 1988 and the subsequent period of political liberalization of 1989-92. An analysis of the return of more authoritarian politics and the search to find social and political peace in the 1990s will conclude the course.

This is an optional Course in the North African and Middle Eastern Studies Concentration for the BAIS

HIS 3320 History of United States Foreign Policy 3(3-0)

This course discusses the development of United States foreign policy from the isolationist era to the present day using a historical approach. Alternative interpretations of the history of the United States Foreign Policy, especially the traditionalist and revisionist schools, will be offered to the students.

This is an optional Course in the American Studies Concentration for the BAIS

HIS 4301 Modern Imperialism and its Culture 3(3-0)
Pre-requisite: Senior Classification

This course is a comparative examination of European Imperialism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It looks at the historical contexts which led to the emergence of imperialist relations. It also seeks to look at the political, economic, social cultural dimensions of modern European imperialism. The focus will be primarily on British and French colonial experiences overseas. The course takes a world historical approach to the study of imperialism. It is concerned with the different social and cultural manifestations of European interactions with different societies from Asia and Africa. Through an examination of specific histories, it will explore the various reactions of the colonized peoples to the colonial encounter and the behaviors of the metropolitan colonial elite within the same context. Issues of gender, colonial science, orientalism, and culture will be dealt with as part of the complex fabric of the modern colonial experience. The course will end with a discussion of the process of Decolonization and Nationalism and the effects of the colonial experience on the emerging nation states.

This is an optional Course in the European Studies Concentration for the BAIS

HIS 4302 Britain Since 1945 3(3-0)
Pre-requisite: Senior Classification

Asurvey of British society and politics since the close of the Second World War, the course will follow Britain's emergence from the experience of war, the establishment of the welfare state and the post-war consensus, through the social changes of the 1960s, the crises of the 1970s and the ideological conflicts and controversies of the 1980s and concluding with an analysis of Britain in the 1990s.

This is an optional Course in the European Studies Concentration for the BAIS

HIS 4303 History and Memory in Twentieth Century Europe 3(3-0)
Pre-requisite: Senior Classification

This seminar takes collective memory as the theoretical background for the study of modern European history. It is conceived as a reflection on how history and memory are either interrelated or opposed to each other in our historical thinking and the way we view the past. This seminar is also an attempt to challenge the perspective of the 'conventional' history of modern Europe. It does so by focusing on how specific social groups, such as the working class, woman, soldiers, holocaust survivors, immigrant and marginalized people 'remember' their past and experiences in the context of specific events and periods. The seminar starts with the First World War as a site of conflicting memories, and concludes with the fall of the Berlin wall which brought the debate about memory back to the study of history.

This is an optional Course in the European Studies Concentration for the BAIS