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HISC02H3 - Marx and History

This is an intensive reading course that explores the Marxist historical tradition in critical perspective. It builds upon HISA09H3, and aims to help students acquire a theoretical and practical appreciation of the contributions, limitations, and ambiguities of Marxian approaches to history. Readings include classical philosophers and social critics, contemporary historians, and critics of Marxism.

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including 0.5 credit at the A- or B-level in HIS courses
Recommended Preparation: HISA09H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC03H3 - History of Animals and People

An examination of the places of animals in global history. The course examines on-going interactions between humans and animals through hunting, zoos, breeding, and pets and the historical way the divide between humans and animals has been measured. Through animals, people have often thought about what it means to be human. 
Same as (IEEC03H3)
Transnational Area

Prerequisite: Any 2.5 credits in History.
Exclusion: (HISD03H3), (IEEC03H3)
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC06H3 - Futures of the Past: Introduction to Digital History

In the oft- titled “Information age” how has historical practice changed? How will researchers analyze the current moment, which produces ever more, and ever-more fragile information? This third-year seminar explores the foundations of digital history by understanding the major shifts in historiography and historical research that have occurred through computing. Students taking this class will be prepared to take HISD18 and further extend their knowledge of digital methodologies.

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including 0.5 credit at the A- or B-level in HIS courses

HISC07H3 - The Past is a Sea of Data: Writing History in a Digital Age

This course prepares students to work in the field of digital history. We focus on the development of concrete skills in spatial and visual analysis; web technologies including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Components; and multi-media authoring. Each year, we choose a different thematic focus and use techniques of digital history to explore it. Students completing this class will acquire skills that qualify them to participate in ongoing Digital History and Digital Humanities projects run by department faculty, as well as to initiate their own research projects.

Prerequisite: HISB05H3
Exclusion: HIS355H1, HISC06H3
Recommended Preparation: 0.5 credit at the A or B-level in CLA, FST, GAS, HIS or WST courses
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC08H3 - Colonialism on Film

An examination of the depiction of empires and the colonial and postcolonial experience on film. This course also introduces students to the development of national cinemas in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and the South Pacific. The relationship between academic history and history as imagined by filmmakers is a key theme.
Transnational Area

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including 0.5 credit at the A- or B-level in HIS courses
Exclusion: (HISB18H3)
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC09H3 - Pirates of the Caribbean

This course examines early modern globalization through that cosmopolitan actor, the pirate. Beginning in the Caribbean, we will explore networks of capitalism, migration, empire, and nascent nationalism. By studying global phenomena through marginalized participants—pirates, maroons, rebels, and criminals—we seek alternate narratives on the modern world’s origins.

Prerequisite: 1.0 credit in HIS courses
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC10H3 - Beyond Cleopatra: Decolonial Approaches to Ancient Egypt

This course focuses on the History of ancient Egypt, with a focus on the Hellenistic to early Arab periods (4th c. BCE to 7th c. CE). Lectures will emphasize the key role played by Egypt’s diverse environments in the shaping of its socio-cultural and economic features as well as in the policies adopted by ruling authorities. Elements of continuity and change will be emphasized and a variety of primary sources and sites will be discussed. Special attention will also be dedicated to the role played by imperialism, Orientalism, and modern identity politics in the emergence and trajectory of the fields of Graeco-Roman Egyptian history, archaeology, and papyrology.


Same as (IEEC52H3), CLAC05H3
0.5 pre-1800 credit
Ancient World Area

Prerequisite: 2.0 credits in CLA or HIS courses, including 1.0 credit from the following: CLAA04H3/HISA07H3 or CLAB05H3/HISB10H3 or CLAB06H3/HISB11H3
Exclusion: CLAC05H3, (IEEC52H3)
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC11H3 - Race and Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean and West Asian Worlds

A critical examination of multiculturalism and cultural identities in the Greek and Roman worlds. Special attention will be dedicated to the evidences through which these issues are documented and to their fundamental influence on the formation and evolution of ancient Mediterranean and West Asian societies and cultures.
Same as CLAC24H3
0.5 pre-1800 credit
Ancient World Area

Prerequisite: 1.0 credit in CLA or HIS courses.
Exclusion: CLAC24H3
Recommended Preparation: CLAB05H3 and CLAB06H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC16H3 - Indigeneity and the Classics

This course will explore the representations and realities of Indigeneity in the ancient Mediterranean world, as well as the entanglements between modern settler colonialism, historiography, and reception of the 'Classical' past. Throughout the term, we will be drawn to (un)learn, think, write, and talk about a series of topics, each of which pertains in different ways to a set of overarching questions: What can Classicists learn from ancient and modern indigenous ways of knowing? What does it mean to be a Classicist in Tkaronto, on the land many Indigenous Peoples call Turtle Island? What does it mean to be a Classicist in Toronto, Ontario, Canada? What does it mean to be a Classicist in a settler colony? How did the Classics inform settler colonialism? How does modern settler colonialism inform our reconstruction of ancient indigeneities? How does our relationship to the land we come from and are currently on play a role in the way we think about the ancient Mediterranean world? Why is that so? How did societies of the ancient Mediterranean conceive of indigeneity? How did those relationships manifest themselves at a local, communal, and State levels?

Same as CLAC26H3
Ancient World Area

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including 1.0 credit in CLA or HIS courses
Exclusion: CLAC26H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC18H3 - Europe in the Enlightenment, 1700-1789

An examination of the ideals of the Enlightenment against the background of social and political change in eighteenth-century Europe.
This course looks at Enlightenment thought and the ways in which European monarchs like Frederick the Great and Catherine the Great adapted it to serve their goals of state building.
0.50 pre-1800 credit
European Area

Prerequisite: 1.0 credit at B-level in European history
Exclusion: HIS244H, HIS341Y
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC20H3 - Fascism and the Far Right

This course examines the political, cultural and social history of fascism, from historical regimes and movements to contemporary expressions of the far right, alt-right and populist nationalism. We will explore topics including intellectual origins, the mobilization of culture, the totalitarian state, political violence, and global networks.

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including 0.5 credit at the A- or B-level in HIS courses
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC22H3 - The Second World War in Europe

This course examines the impact of Second World War on the political, social, and cultural fabric of European societies. Beyond the military and political history of the war, it will engage topics including, but not limited to, geopolitical and ideological contexts; occupation, collaboration and resistance; the lives of combatants and civilians in total war; the Holocaust and the radicalisation of violence; and postwar memory.
European Area

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including 0.5 credit at the A- or B-level in HIS courses
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC26H3 - The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire

The course will present the causes, processes, principles, and effects of the French Revolution. It will additionally present the relationship between the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution, and look at the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte.

0.5 pre-1800 credit

European Area

Exclusion: HIS457H
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC27H3 - The History of European Sexuality: From Antiquity to the Present

The course will cover major developments in sexuality in Europe since antiquity. It will focus on the manner in which social, political, and economic forces influenced the development of sexuality. It will also analyze how religious beliefs, philosophical ideas, and scientific understanding influenced the ways that sexuality was understood.

European Area

Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC29H3 - Global Commodities: Nature, Culture, History

This course explores familiar commodities in terms of natural origins, everyday cultures of use, and global significance. It analyses environmental conditions, socio-economic transactions, political, religious, and cultural contexts around their production, distribution, and consumption. Commodity case studies will be selected among tea, opium, chocolate, rice, bananas, cotton, rubber, coffee, and sugar.
Transnational Area

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including 0.5 credit at the A- or B-level in HIS courses
Recommended Preparation: HISB03H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies
Note: Priority will be given to students enrolled in the Specialist and Major programs in History

HISC30H3 - The U.S. and the World

Collectively, immigrants, businesspeople, investors, missionaries, writers and musicians may have been as important as diplomats’ geopolitical strategies in creating networks of connection and exchange between the United States and the world. This course focuses on the changing importance and interactions over time of key groups of state and non-state actors.

United States and Latin America Area

Prerequisite: 1.0 credit at the A-level in AFS, GAS or HIS courses
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC32H3 - The Emergence of Modern America, 1877-1933

Overview of the political and social developments that produced the modern United States in the half-century after 1877. Topics include urbanization, immigration, industrialization, the rise of big business and of mass culture, imperialism, the evolution of the American colour line, and how Americans used politics to grapple with these changes.
United States and Latin America Area

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including 0.5 credit at the A- or B-level in HIS courses
Recommended Preparation: HISB30H3 and HISB31H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC33H3 - Modern American Political Culture

An examination of the relationship between culture and politics in modern American history. The course considers culture as a means through which Americans expressed political desires. Politics, similarly, can be understood as a forum for cultural expression. Topics include imperialism, immigration and migration, the Cold War, and the "culture wars".
United States and Latin America Area

Prerequisite: HISB30H3 and HISB31H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC34H3 - Race, Segregation, Protest: South Africa and the United States

This transnational history course explores the origins, consolidation, and unmaking of segregationist social orders in the American South and South Africa. It examines the origins of racial inequality, the structural and socio-political roots of segregation, the workings of racial practices and ideologies, and the various strategies of both accommodation and resistance employed by black South Africans and African Americans from the colonial era up to the late twentieth century.

Transnational Area

Prerequisite: AFSB51H3 or HISB31H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC36H3 - People in Motion: Immigrants and Migrants in U.S. History

Overview of the waves of immigration and internal migration that have shaped America from the colonial period to the present. Topics include colonization and westward migration, immigrants in the industrial and contemporary eras, nativism, stances towards pluralism and assimilation, and how migration experiences have varied by race, class, and gender.
United States and Latin America Area

Prerequisite: [Any 4.0 credits, including 0.5 credit at the A- or B-level in HIS courses] or [any 8.0 credits, including SOCB60H3]
Recommended Preparation: HISB30H3 and HISB31H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC39H3 - Hellhound on My Trail: Living the Blues in the Mississippi Delta, 1890-1945

This course examines black life and culture in the cotton South through the medium of the blues. Major topics include: land tenure patterns in southern agriculture, internal and external migration, mechanisms of state and private labour control, gender conventions in the black community, patterns of segregation and changing race relations.

United States and Latin America Area

Exclusion: HIS478H
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC45H3 - Immigrants and Race Relations in Canadian History

An examination of aspects of the history of immigrants and race relations in Canada, particularly for the period 1840s 1960s.
The course covers various immigrant and racialized groups and explores how class, gender and race/ethnicity shaped experiences and racial/ethnic relations.
Canadian Area

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits
Exclusion: HIS312H
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC46H3 - Canada and the World

A look at Canada's evolution in relation to developments on the world stage. Topics include Canada's role in the British Empire and its relationship with the U.S., international struggles for women's rights, Aboriginal peoples' sovereignty and LGBT equality, socialism and communism, the World Wars, decolonization, the Cold War, humanitarianism, and terrorism.
Canadian Area

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including 0.5 credit at the A- or B-level in HIS courses
Exclusion: HIS311H, HIS311Y
Recommended Preparation: HISB40H3 or HISB41H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC51H3 - From Opium to Maximum City: Narrating Political Economy in China and India

This course addresses literary, historical, ethnographic, and filmic representations of the political economy of China and the Indian subcontinent from the early 19th century to the present day. We will look at such topics as the role and imagination of the colonial-era opium trade that bound together India, China and Britain in the 19th century, anticolonial conceptions of the Indian and Chinese economies, representations of national physical health, as well as critiques of mass-consumption and capitalism in the era of the ‘liberalization’ and India and China’s rise as major world economies. Students will acquire a grounding in these subjects from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives.

Same as GASC51H3

Asia and Africa Area

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including 0.5 credit at the A-level and 0.5 credit at the B-level in HIS, GAS or other Humanities and Social Sciences courses
Exclusion: GASC51H3
Recommended Preparation: GASA01H3/HISA06H3 or GASA02H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC52H3 - Ethiopia: Seeing History

This course uses a focus on material history and visual culture to explore Ethiopia from the fourth through the nineteenth century, with particular emphasis on the Christian Church, the monarchy, links with both the Mediterranean world and the Indian subcontinent, and the relationship of individuals to their social, economic, artistic and geographic environments.
Same as AFSC52H3 and VPHC52H3
0.50 pre-1800 credit
Africa and Asia Area

Prerequisite: [1.0 credit in History] or [VPHA46H3 and an additional 1.0 credit in VPH courses]
Exclusion: AFSC52H3, VPHC52H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC55H3 - War and Society in Modern Africa

Conflict and social change in Africa from the slave trade to contemporary times. Topics include the politics of resistance, women and war, repressive and weak states, the Cold War, guerrilla movements, resource predation. Case studies of anticolonial rebellions, liberation wars, and civil conflicts will be chosen from various regions.
Same as AFSC55H3
Africa and Asia Area

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including: AFSB50H3/HISB50H3 or AFSB51H3/HISB51H3 or (HISC50H3) or (HISC51H3)
Exclusion: AFSC55H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC56H3 - Comparative Studies of East Asian Legal Cultures

An introduction to the distinctive East Asian legal tradition shared by China, Japan, and Korea through readings about selected thematic issues. Students will learn to appreciate critically the cultural, political, social, and economic causes and effects of East Asian legal cultures and practices.
Same as GASC50H3
Africa and Asia Area

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including 0.5 credit at the A- or B-level in GAS or HIS courses
Exclusion: GASC50H3
Recommended Preparation: GASB58H3/HISB58H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC57H3 - China and the World

A study of the history of China's relationship with the rest of the world in the modern era. The readings focus on China's role in the global economy, politics, religious movements, transnational diasporas, scientific/technological exchanges, and cultural encounters and conflicts in the ages of empire and globalization.
Same as GASC57H3
Africa and Asia Area

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including 0.5 credit at the A- or B-level in GAS or HIS courses
Exclusion: GASC57H3
Recommended Preparation: GASB58H3/HISB58H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC58H3 - Delhi and London: Imperial Cities, Mobile People

Delhi and London were two major cities of the British Empire. This course studies their parallel destinies, from the imperial into the post-colonial world. It explores how diverse cultural, ecological, and migratory flows connected and shaped these cities, using a wide range of literary, historical, music, and film sources.
Transnational Area

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including 0.5 credit at the A- or B-level from CLA, FST, GAS, HIS or WST courses
Recommended Preparation: HISB02H3 or HISB03H3 or GASB57H3/HISB57H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

HISC59H3 - The Making of Tamil Worlds

This course explores the transnational history of Tamil worlds. In addition to exploring modern Tamil identities, the course will cover themes such as mass migration, ecology, social and economic life, and literary history.
Same as GASC59H3
Africa and Asia Area

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including 0.5 credit at the A- or B-level in GAS or HIS courses
Exclusion: GASC59H3, (HISB54H3), (GASB54H3)
Recommended Preparation: GASB57H3/HISB57H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies