D. Kelley (History and East Asian Studies)
4 SS, CD, WRi, 4 Hours
Fall Semester FYSP 153-01 MWF 1:30-2:20
How have historians and other social scientists conceptualized the world in which we live? What are the vocabularies and concepts used to discuss the processes of change that have resulted in today’s “globalized” world of nationstates? This seminar addresses these and other questions through a close examination of the ways that world history has been conceived, from ancient times to the present. We will read and discuss a variety of primary texts and secondary, analytical works that bear on such issues as metageography (What are continents? Why are there seven?); the idea of world civilizations (What and who are left out when we take this approach?); and the triumphalist “rise of the West” narrative. Finally, we will consider the nature of “globalization” and place today’s global, transnational economy and institutions in historical perspective. Throughout the course we will examine the role of the social scientist, in particular the historian, in formulating questions for investigation and in plotting a strategy for answering them. The process allows us to produce and disseminate knowledge, which has the potential for becoming common knowledge in the culture at large. In particular, we will ask how the questions being investigated shape the history produced.