History: Nonhuman Histories

Topics examining themes in Global history. May be repeated for credit with different content. Topics vary by offering; periodic offering at intervals that may exceed four years. Prerequisite: Twelve hours of History; minimum Junior standing.

Colocated with Hst 5300A; Grad students register for Hst 5300 A; Total combined enrollment is 20; Minimum Junior standing; PACE students with permission and override Prereq: 12 hours History;

History is an interspecies affair. Plants, animals, and microbes have played a pivotal role in forging the human past, yet they have been all too absent in its retellings. This seminar class explores the actions, influence, and perspectives of nonhuman actors, ranging from fish and mammals to fungi and AI. Our exploration of these nonhuman pasts will take us on a tour of Atlantic fisheries, Ghanaian uranium mines, and Chinese industrial wastelands, with each stop revealing how nonhuman actors have shaped, disrupted, and adapted to the human world. These “more-than-human” or “posthuman” histories demand an interdisciplinary approach, and we will engage with scholarship from environmental studies, critical race and ethnic studies, science and technology studies, Indigenous studies, gender and sexuality studies, and disability studies to understand how the very category of the “human” has always been political, historically contingent, and entwined with nature. Undergraduate students will produce think-pieces, connective essays, and original research papers that reflect on the methods and possibilities of pursuing the nonhuman past. Concentrations: Asia/Africa/Middle East/Global (HI04), as well as The Americas (HI05) and Europe (HI02) with instructor override.