This seminar is an introduction to some dimension of the history of a nation, region, people, culture, institution, or historical phenomenon selected by the respective instructor. Students will come to understand, and develop an appreciation for: 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 explore how human encounters shaped individual and collective identities and the political, economic, and social orders of the region/nation/communities under study. Instructors prioritize critical reading, engaged participation, and focused writing assignments.

This course will view the Cold War through the gun-barrel of the James Bond film canon. More than escapism or British imperial nostalgia, the Bond films provide a useful window into what historians increasingly term the “Global Cold War”: the clash between capitalist West, socialist East, and non-aligned South for power and influence in a rapidly decolonizing world. Reading the Bond films as cultural documents alongside the latest historical scholarship, we will trace the long arc of the US-Soviet-Chinese confrontation and its aftermaths through a series of distant, yet deeply interconnected struggles: from French atomic imperialism in the Sahara to Black Power revolutions in the Caribbean, from the breakdown of the Sino-Soviet alliance to the Bolivian water wars.

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills