This course is designed to engage students in conversations about particular perspectives on the history of a selected nation, region, people, culture, institution, or historical phenomenon as specified by the respective instructor. By taking this course, students will come to understand, and develop an appreciation for, some combination of: the origins and evolution of the people, cultures, and/or political, economic, and/or social institutions of a particular region(s) of the world. They may also explore how human encounters shaped individual and collective identities and the complex political, economic, and social orders of the region/nation/communities under study. Instructors and subject will vary.

“Feminist history” is a term that encompasses a wide and rich range of histories of ideas, issues, movements, and contemporary controversies. In this lecture/seminar we will examine the history of feminist movements, anthropological descriptions of South Asian women’s lives and cultures, political tracts on contemporary issues with older genealogies, and historical/anthropological monographs dealing with specific scandals associated with women’s bodies, such as dowry murders, or honor killings. The lecture/seminar will progress thematically rather than geographically, and will address issues specific to the lives of women in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Beginning with the medieval and early modern period, moving on to the British colonial period in South Asia (1757-1947/8) it will address the impact of missionary and colonial policies associated with reform on the lives of women, moving onto the nationalist period, partition, and the post-nationalist milieu. The course is divided into six sections: Colonialism and law/property/education and reform; Nationalism, religion and identity; Violence/Conflict and Minority Struggles; Globalization and its discontents.

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills