Spring 2027 Undergraduate Courses

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Department Policy on In-Person Attendance

All Spring 2027 History courses will be taught in-person, unless indicated by the (*course note). By signing up for a class, you have agreed to attend and participate in the class. You should not expect to be able to attend an 'in-person' class remotely or to access class recordings. Exceptions to this policy may be granted at the instructor’s discretion. If you are unwilling or unable to commit to attending and participating in person over the duration of the semester, you should seek alternative options for all-remote or online courses. (For assistance with finding alternative classes, please contact your advisor and/or the History Advisor, Hayes Moore, hayes.moore@colorado.edu.)

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Expanded course descriptions

This page does not list all Spring 2027 History courses, only those for which we have expanded descriptions. To see all courses, please use the Course Search button above. If you would like an expanded description of a course which is not on this list, please reach out to the instructor.

HIST 1113 / Introduction to British History to 1660 - Paul Hammer

This course is an introduction to the history of England (and, to some extent, Britain and the British Isles) from Roman times to the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660. During the semester, we will discuss important political, social, religious, and cultural developments that helped to shape the course of English and British history. Specific modules include: Anglo-Saxons and Vikings; Medieval Society and the Black Death; Religion in Late Medieval England; Elizabeth I and the Widening World; and Charles I and the Failure of the “British Monarchies”.

HIST 1800 / Introduction to Global History

(001) Global History of Nonviolence - Mithi Mukherjee

This course explores the global history of non-violence in the twentieth century from a cultural and intellectual history perspective. After a brief discussion of the definition of global history, we will explore the Gandhian movement of nonviolent mass resistance in India against British colonial rule in the first half of the twentieth century. We will look at the key events of Mahatma Gandhi’s life and the development of his unique mode of political mobilization based on nonviolence and civil disobedience. In the next section we will examine the reception of Gandhian non-violence in the United States beginning with labor movements and finding its culmination in the Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King. To underline the fact that non-violent mass movements were neither inevitable nor uncontested as the primary method of achieving freedom in different historical contexts, we will look at the writings of Frantz Fanon and Malcolm X. In the final section we will examine global antiwar movements in the 1960s and Mandela’s anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. We will conclude the course with a discussion of nonviolent civil disobedience in the present. 

     (002) The Silk Road - Kwangmin Kim

This course offers an introduction to the history of the Silk Road and Central Eurasia from the Neolithic Period to the present. Specific topics to be covered in this course include, but are not limited to, 1) long-distance trade and transnational migration, 2) interactions between the nomads and settled societies, 3) expansion of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, 4) Chinese and European, especially Russian, colonialisms. This course explores the parallels and interconnections between the local societies along the overland trade routes rather than exploring collective “national histories” of this region. In so doing, this course shows how the local societies interacted with one another as well as with the forces of global trade and European and Chinese colonialism, giving rise to a distinctive historical world.

HIST 2015-001 / U.S. Revolutionary Origins: The American Revolution - Honor Sachs

Americans just celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Over the next decade, our nation will continue to celebrate founding moments, as the American experiment took shape in war, law, politics, and culture. This course will examine the revolutionary origins of the United States and the struggles that unfolded along the road to nationhood. It looks at the American Revolution as a conflict that was both global and local, one that involved tensions and transformations among empires and individuals alike. We will look at the aspirations and limitations of freedom, liberty, and equality that shaped the creation of the new nation and consider the consequences of issues left unresolved and incomplete. Throughout the course, we will discuss what the American Revolution can mean for us today, as we enter a decade of 250th anniversaries marking the civic origins of the United States.

HIST 2220-001 / History of War and Society: Gunpowder and War, 1300-1648 - David Paradis

Knights on horseback dominated European warfare in the Middle Ages and even inspired a code of conduct and social paradigm: chivalry.  With the adoption of gunpowder weapons, the inclusion of the middle and lower classes in warfare, and the growth of religious wars, chivalry receded, and Europeans found new ways to recruit soldiers.  In addition to covering these topics, this class will include a role-playing game, centered on the Protestant Reformation.

HIST 2316-001 / History of American Popular Culture - Viola Burlew

From silent films to jazz to Superman to Taylor Swift to Sinners, all facets of American popular culture draw from interwoven histories of the past and have bearing on our future. In this course, we will explore the origins of four main media types – print, music, film, and television—as they relate to American popular culture and will then connect those developments back to broader trends in U.S. history. By engaging directly with multimedia sources like Casablanca, I Love Lucy, Beatles music, Marvel movies, and more, this course will demonstrate how popular culture as a whole is a negotiation of our individual identities, of our relationship to broader cultural movements, and of our understanding of what it means to be an American.

HIST 2476-001 / United States Legal History - Honor Sachs

This course explores the legal history of the United States from the founding era into the present. We will study the legal ideas that shaped the drafting of the Constitution and survey the various pressures and tensions that have tested and changed that founding document over the last 250 years. Throughout the semester, we will study the legal debates that arose in the contexts of territorial expansion, industrial development, financial expansion and collapse, shifting demographics, and both civil and world war. We will consider how legal questions over slavery, civil rights, race, regulation, economic expansion, privacy, gender, sexuality, and equality have contributed to both inclusive and exclusive understandings of citizenship.
 

HIST 2500-001 / Fact and Fiction in History: Who Invented the Indian? - Noah Ramage

More than five hundred years ago, an infamous sailor mislabeled the inhabitants of San Salvador Island in the Bahamas as “Indians.” Over the centuries that followed, the term became attached to images of savagery and nobility, narratives of conquest and resistance, and competing ideas about race, nationhood, and inclusion. This course examines how “the Indian” was invented, how its meanings have changed over time, and how Native peoples have challenged, revised, and embraced the label. Examining primary and secondary sources from the Americas and Europe, students will use historical methods to investigate the relationship between representation and reality. Together, students will explore a central question: who invented the Indian?

HIST 2629-001 China in World History: China's Global Connections - William Wei

How has China shaped the world, and how has the world shaped China? This course explores Chinese history through a global lens, examining China's connections with other societies rather than treating its history in isolation. Organized around the movement of people, goods, beliefs, technologies, and political ideas across borders, the course traces how these exchanges shaped China and influenced the wider world. Through these themes, we will examine how cross-cultural encounters created opportunities, how unequal power relations shaped interactions, and how historians reconstruct the connections that link China to global history.

HIST 3020 / Historical Thinking and Writing

(001) American Identity after WWII - Natalie Mendoza Gutierrez

This course introduces students to historical research methods through an examination of the popular belief that World War II was a democratizing and progressive moment for marginalized communities in American society. We will explore the tension between wartime democratic rhetoric and the various forms of discrimination Japanese Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and gay and lesbian GIs experienced by considering events such as Japanese American removal and confinement, African American efforts to end discrimination in the wartime industry and military, Mexican American civil rights diplomacy, and the policing of gender norms and sexuality in the U.S. military. We will consider under what circumstances democracy did or did not work, the government’s role in hindering or promoting a sense of belonging in the nation, the way marginalized communities fought for equality, and how broader society defined “American”—in terms of identity as well as the ideals and priorities of the era. 

     (002) The Rise of the Propaganda State - Tim Weston

This seminar examines the rise and evolution of modern propaganda states. While all governments use propaganda, in this class we will concentrate on instances when state propaganda became a defining feature of the nation's politics. We will study this in four different historical settings: China; the Soviet Union; Nazi Germany; and the United States. During the semester we will discuss what political “propaganda” means, how governments have made use of it, and the consequences of that form of politics. This will involve studying visual, textual, performative, artistic, architectural, and other forms of propaganda. Students will be guided step by step through the design, research, and writing stages of a historical research paper on a topic of their own choice related to propaganda and politics.
 

(003) Uprising - the Peasant's Revolt of 1381 - Katie Little

The topic of this course is the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, the subject of the recent film, “The Uprising.” As that title suggests, people in late 14th century England wanted change. But what kind of change? And who were these people? We will use the Revolt as a window into the world of late medieval England and, as importantly, to ask questions about how political and social change happens.  We will look at primary sources, including eyewitness accounts, attempts to make sense of the event by outsiders, and cryptic calls to action from the peasants themselves; think about what the primary sources don’t tell us; and familiarize ourselves with the scholarly conversations.

HIST 3328-001 / Seminar in Middle Eastern History: The United States and the Middle East - Hilary Kalisman

This course examines key moments of the intertwined history of the United States and the Middle East from the 18th century through the present. Topics include piracy, millenarianism, Syrian immigration to the United States, Cold War diplomacy, Israel/Palestine, the Iranian revolution, the Gulf Wars, the legacies of 9/11 and current politics. Students will be able to choose their own subject to research in more depth. 

HIST 3415-001 / Seminar in Recent American History - Thomas Zeiler

This course explores the diplomacy (and the domestic roots of foreign affairs) of the United States in the world from the post-Vietnam War period (1970s) to the present.  The course will explore how and why decisions were made and apply this information, and the lessons of history, to contemporary affairs.  We will ask questions, many of them:  was there a distinctive American foreign policy?  Has America been a force for good or ill in the world?  Who hold the power to make decisions in foreign policy?  What were the internal debates over foreign policy and how were they resolved? What was the reception abroad of U.S. ideas, policies, and power?  How were the domestic and international arenas linked?  And, what does it all mean for today? 

HIST 4126-001 / History of U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1941 - Thomas Zeiler

This course explores the diplomacy of the United States from American entry into World War II to the present, with a focus on the Cold War.  We will study the economic, social, intellectual, moral, technological, and political bases of U.S foreign relations as the nation emerged as a global leader, and as it maintained that status during and after the Cold War.  You will examine the history armed with professional historians’ models, and will draw on both secondary and primary sources to make your arguments.  The course will explore how and why decisions were made and apply this information, and the lessons of history, to contemporary affairs. 

HIST 4133-801 / Tudor England, 1485-1603 *(HONORS)

The Tudors—especially Henry VIII (ruled 1509-47) and Elizabeth I (ruled 1558-1603)—are probably the most famous royal dynasty to occupy the English throne. After the first Tudor—Henry VII—seized the throne in 1485, the members of his upstart dynasty consistently portrayed themselves as restorers of political order and stability. Under the Tudors, however, dramatic developments occurred in the fortunes of the English monarchy, including a back-and-forth Reformation which lasted at least four decades, the first time that women ruled England as the uncontested sovereign, the end of England’s territorial foothold on the Continent, the final subjugation of Ireland to English sovereignty and, ultimately, a union of crowns with Scotland which set the scene for the eventual creation of Great Britain a century later (in 1706-7).

 * NOTE:This is an Honors section, self-enrollment is allowed for continuing A&S students with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.300. Students outside of the College of Arts & Sciences can petition to enroll by emailing honors@colorado.edu. You may only enroll in one Honors course per semester. Auditors are not allowed.

HIST 4258-001 / Africa under European Colonial Rule - Myles Osborne

This course seeks to understand the experience of colonialism in Africa. We will start with British, French, Portuguese and German empires that undertook the "Scramble for Africa" in the late 19th century. Themes include slavery and the slave trade; colonization and "pacification"; African resistance to European rule; missionaries and converts; decolonization and anti-colonial uprisings; issues facing Africa today, including oil, war and the Rwandan genocide.

HIST 4359-001 / The Global History of Modern Arabia - John Willis

In this class we'll look at the states of the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf as part of a global order of trade, imperialism, migration, and revolution from the 19th century to the present.  In doing so, we'll not only look at the transformative role of petroleum and Islamic thought on the region, but a longer history of cosmopolitan interactions with the Indian Ocean world through trade, missionary work, revolutionary organization, and cultural exchange.  We'll do so through an examination of various primary sources, academic articles, music, and films.

HIST 4627-001 / Native American History II: 1815 to Present - Noah Ramage

This course introduces students to the Indigenous history of North America from 1815 to the present. We trace how Native peoples interacted with the United States, Canada, and Mexico through several turbulent periods of war, removal, protest, and reform. We will examine how Native nations exercised sovereignty, built strong institutions, and sustained political and cultural community amid conquest, exploitation, and ethnic cleansing. Throughout the semester, students will engage with the core concepts of the field, including sovereignty, settler colonialism, genocide, and empire. We will collectively develop the tools to interpret Indigenous, U.S., Mexican, and Canadian decision-making with nuance. Grappling with the complexity of the past, and using historical methods to understand this complexity, we will often return to one central question: what are the stakes of studying Native American history?

HIST 4648-001 / Inventing Chinese Modernity, 1800 to Present - Tim Weston

This class focuses on China's last era of greatness and the collapse of that order in the early twentieth century; on Western and Japanese imperialism in China and the so-called "Century of Humiliation" (1842-1949); on efforts to define and acuate Chinese modernity; and on the forces that led to the Communist Revolution of 1949, one of the truly seismic events of twentieth century global history.

HIST 4800-001 / Special Topics in Global History: A Global History of Yoga - Sanjay Gautam

This course focuses on the history of yoga from its origin in the spiritual traditions of India to its spread in the West and beyond. The worldwide spread of yoga, particularly in the last century, has made it a truly global phenomenon. In the process, it has not only transcended all ethnic, religious, and national boundaries, but has also undergone subtle and often unnoticed changes of immense significance. Given its near universal reach, only a global approach to its history can allow us to understand the real nature and significance of its presence in the world today. We will start off the course with a reading of some relevant parts of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras—the original book on yoga—and then closely follow its evolution as it expands throughout the world. NOTE: Co-listed with HUMN 3093-001 Topics in the Humanities. History Majors and Minors should take the course as HIST 4800-001 in order for it to count as History in their degree audit.
 

 

 

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