Winter Quarter, 2010
The Department of History, The Ohio State University
Undergraduate History Office, 110 Dulles Hall, 292-6793
The Department of History has compiled information
in this booklet to assist students in selecting courses
for Winter Quarter, 2010. The descriptions are accurate
as of October 9, 2009. Please be aware that changes
may be made.
A printed version of the coursebook is also available in the History office, 106 Dulles Hall.
HISTORY 121 AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS TO 1870
5 Cr. Hrs.
This course surveys the history of pre-modern African civilization with a focus on specific episodes in the continent’s political, economic and cultural developments. We will explore some of the internal and external factors that account for the rise and decline of various African empires and states as well as the impediments the continent encountered in the course of its economic, political and cultural developments prior to formal colonial domination.
TimeMeeting DaysInstructor
11:30-12:48 MW Barchiesi
11:30; 12:30 T or Thurs (recitation)
HISTORY 122 AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS 1870 TO THE PRESENT
5 Cr. Hrs.
Using a multi-disciplinary approach and a variety of teaching materials (including movies and documentary films), this course will explore specific episodes in Africa’s political, social, and economic history from 1870 to the present. Focusing on European colonialism, African liberation struggles and subsequent emergence of modern nation states, we will attempt to trace the historical roots of Africa’s putative economic stagnation and persistent political conflicts, and how Africans grappled with these challenges. Our themes will include struggles for national liberation, the contributions of African Americans in African liberation struggles in the form of Pan Africanism, the search for continental unity, the formation of regional economic blocs, the cold war and its effects, debt crises, civil wars and genocides, the HIV pandemic, and the effects of droughts on national and regional conflicts. While Africa has continued to lag behind most of the world in economic development and political stability, it will be historically inaccurate to neglect the continent’s success stories. We will therefore pay close attention to areas where the continent has made and is still making significant progress. Through novels, music and movie clips, students will be exposed to modern African cultures in the context of globalization.
TimeMeeting DaysInstructor
11:00-12:18 TR Kobo, O.
10:30; 11:30 MW (recitations)
Assigned Readings: To be decided but will include a textbook and a course reader.
Assignments: Assignments will include a map quiz, in-class quizzes, a take-home midterm and final exam.
HISTORY 541.02 HISTORY OF ISLAM IN AFRICA
5 Cr. Hrs.
This discussion-driven course explores the historical, religious, political and cultural aspects of the expansion of Islam in Africa from about the 9th century CE to the present. It will address historical contingencies that account for Islam's local receptivity as well as its dynamic interactions with local cultures, politics, traditional religions, Christianity and European colonialism. The course primarily seeks to understand the transformative relationship between Islam and African religious and cultural expressions in order to tease out the ways by which Islam transformed and was transformed by indigenous religious knowledge and cultures. While the Islamization of Africa is important for understanding African history, the Africanization of Islam is equally important and will be our main theme. Thus, we will analyze the processes by which Africans localized Islamic intellectual traditions, healing practices, music, arts, cultural norms and formal and informal Islamic festivals in order to reconstruct local Muslim cultural and political identities. We will further explore how Islam reconfigured social, political and gender relations throughout its history in Africa by examining different Muslim institutions such as Sufi brotherhoods and Mahdism that led to the founding of political organizations and states. We will proceed to consider shifting strategies of coexistence and accommodation between Muslim leaders and colonial as well as post-colonial regimes. Rather than homogenizing Islam in Africa, we will explore diverse religious practices across time and space even as we pay attention to common denominators and patterns.
TimeMeeting DaysInstructor
1:30-3:18 TR Kobo
Assigned Readings: To be decided but will include two major text books and two novels, in addition to journal articles.
Assignments:
Midterm and final exams;
Research paper—12-15 pages;
Active participation is mandatory
Prerequisites and Special Comments:
Prior knowledge of African and or Islamic history, at least at the introductory level, is essential but not required. Students without any knowledge of African or Islamic history may combine this course with History 121 (African civilization to 1870). Group A, pre-1750.
AMERICAN HISTORY
HISTORY 151 AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS, 1607-1877
5 Cr. Hrs.
This course surveys the political, constitutional, social, and economic development of the U.S. from the Colonial Period through the Era of Reconstruction. This course, in conjunction with HIS 152, furnishes one of the sequence requirements for the LAR and GEC. Not open to students with credit for History 150.01.
Winter Quarter, 2010
The Department of History, The Ohio State University
Undergraduate History Office, 110 Dulles Hall, 292-6793
The Department of History has compiled information
in this booklet to assist students in selecting courses
for Winter Quarter, 2010. The descriptions are accurate
as of October 9, 2009. Please be aware that changes
may be made.
A printed version of the coursebook is also available in the History office, 106 Dulles Hall.
