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History
HIEA 3141: Political and Social Thought in Modern China [3]
Bradly Reed, Associate Professor
In the closing years of the 19th century, with the 2,000 year old imperial system of government collapsing around them, Chinese intellectuals and political actors began searching for an explanation for the country’s dire circumstances while at the same time seeking a means of transforming an ancient empire into a modern nation. In the course of this search, they grappled with a number of difficult questions: To what extent does modernity demand the embrace of western values? How can such values be adapted to Chinese realities? What is the fate of China’s own cultural heritage? Upon what should a sense of Chinese identity be based? At the turn of the 21st century, millions in China are dealing with many of the same questions. Under the influence of free-market economic reforms, forty years of socialist certitude have given way to questions over the direction in which the country is headed, the basis of political authority, the meaning of revolution and social justice, the problems of human rights and free expression, the impact of globalization, and how China might define its own unique path against an overwhelming Western influence. This course will explore how Chinese people have struggled with these issues over the past century by considering intellectual and political debates and conflicts within their historical and cultural contexts. Although this course does not require previous study of Modern China, it is strongly advised that those without any background in this area consult with me as to possible supplemental readings.
HIST 3559: Americans in the Middle East [3]
Elizabeth F. Thompson, Associate Professor
This course offers a modern history of Americans' involvement in the Middle East, and of Middle Eastern peoples' response to them. To facilitate research and accommodate guest speakers, we will meet at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, DC. Housing is provided.
The course has two goals. We will use new approaches to international history to place Americans’ recent diplomatic and military interventions in the region into historical context. We will also study Middle Eastern writing about Americans to address the broader question that so many Americans asked a decade ago, "Why do they hate us?" Each day focuses on a different group of Americans. We begin with 19th-century pilgrimages to the Holy Land and missionaries' establishment of an impressive education system in the Middle East. We then examine the "Wilsonian Moment," when the American president and his diplomats raised the hopes of many Middle Eastern peoples with his promises of self-determination after World War I. The next two days are devoted to the oil men who staked a claim to Arabian oil and to spies, who turned the Middle East into one of the most important theaters of the early Cold War. We examine journalists and diplomats in the Arab-Israeli conflict at the time of the Camp David accords in 1979. The course concludes with a re-examination of American soldiers' engagement in the Middle East, placing the Iraq war in the broadest context of Americans' encounter with the Middle East since the 19th century.
After morning discussion and lunch, students will travel each afternoon to visit institutions in Washington DC, where they will meet experts on Americans involvement in the Middle East and conduct research at the Library of Congress and the National Archives. The final paper will be based on reading and on primary research.
Additional Course Fee: $750
Application Required: www.virginia.edu/januaryterm/HIST_3559_Application.html
HIST 4591: Genocide, Justice, and the Law [3]
Jeffrey Rossman, Associate Professor
The twentieth century was characterized by repeated episodes of one-sided, state-sponsored mass killing. When such killing targets racial, ethnic, religious, or national groups, it is know under international law as genocide. In this intensive reading and discussion course, we will explore efforts by individual nations and the international community to bring the perpetrators of genocide to justice. Topics to be covered include: the Ottoman Courts-Martial that followed the Armenian genocide; the Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials that followed the Second World War; the adoption of the United Nations Genocide Convention in 1948; the Eichmann trial of 1961-62; the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials of 1963-65; and efforts during the past two decades by international courts to prosecute perpetrators of the Yugoslavian, Rwandan, and Cambodian, genocide. The course will explore the legal aspects of genocide prosecution as well as broader historical issues such as the causes of genocides, individual vs. collective responsibility, and what role courts and other institutions have played, post-genocide, in the process of reconciliation and nation-building
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