Global History A 2020/2021

General description:

Global History has come into its own as a scholarly enterprise at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Spurred by ongoing processes of globalization it flourishes as one of the most important developments in the discipline of history today. This course will introduce students to the literature on and practice of global history looking at the relation between Europe and the rest of the world, from the late eighteenth century to the beginning of the twenty first century. In this course, global Entanglements and local specificities, interactions and hierarchies will be expressed in critical historical approaches. Moreover, global history will be investigated on defined objects and multiple scales (of object themselves, of time and space). The course will be divided into two main parts. After a week dedicated to the historiographical debates related to Global history, the main focuses of the classes will be on Actors and Spaces in a global scale. Students will be expected to write a short research paper on a topic in global history. 

Learning Objectives:

The course aims to provide students with solid knowledge and the ability to navigate the dynamics of global history from the late nineteenth century to the present day. By the end of the course, students will have a good knowledge of political and institutional events in a transnational and global dimension; they will be able to think globally at the historical-political and institutional transformations. The teaching activity of this module aims to strengthen the following skills: Critical Thinking: Students will be developing their ability to analyze critically both historical and present events in a global perspective. 

Reading: Students will become active readers that can articulate their own interpretations with an awareness and appreciation of multiple perspectives. Each lecture will include discussions designed to ensure that students have completed their assigned reading. These discussions will also foster a collaborative classroom environment where students collectively analyze the significance of historical developments. 

Writing: Students will be able to offer complex and informed analyses of historical documents. They will practice writing as a process of inquiry and engage other writers’ ideas as they explore and develop their own voice as a writer. As shown below, over the course of the semester, students will complete a process-oriented writing assignment that emphasize analysis over description. Communication: Students will demonstrate the skills needed to participate in a dialogue that builds knowledge collaboratively, listening carefully and respectfully to others’ viewpoints while articulating their own ideas and questions. 

Teaching Method:

The teacher will combine lectures with readings, films and discussion, and will analyze a variety of primary sources, such as novels, newspaper articles, documents, advertisements and documentaries. Students are asked to actively participate in discussions and are strongly encouraged to read the extra readings the teacher will suggest them on a weekly basis. 

Contents:

Every week consists in 3 classes (2 hours each). 

Week 1

Why global history? The historiographical debate, and beyond

Week 2

Actors. Migration and exile: the making of the modern global world

Week 3

Actors. Transnational War Volunteers as global actors in Modern Times

Week 4

Actors. The Global World of the Cominternians

Week 5

Mid-Term test and “How to write a research paper”?

Week 6

Spaces. Center and Periphery in Global History 

Week 7

Spaces. Transatlantic circulation of Ideas during the 20th Century 

Week 8

Spaces. The Cold War in the Global South

Week 9

A global approach to our times and general conclusions of the course

Text books:

·      Sebastian Conrad, What is global history? (Princeton, 2016) 

·      Akira Iriye, Global and Transnational History. The Past, Present and Future (Basingstoke, 2013)

Students will also have to choose one book among the following list and to discuss it at the final oral exam (two books for non-attending students):

·      Nir Arielli, From Byron to bin Laden (Princeton, 2018)

·      Federico Finchelstein, From Fascism to Populism in History (Oakland, 2017)

·      Michael Goebel, Anti-imperial metropolis: interwar Paris and the seeds of third world nationalism (Cambridge, 2015)

·      Lisa A. Kirshenbaum, International Communism and the Spanish Civil War. Solidarity and Suspicion (Cambridge, 2015)

·      Kiran Klaus Patel, The New Deal. A Global History (Princeton, 2016)

·      Arne Odd Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambridge, 2005)

Assessment methods:

Attending Students:

The assessment for this module is as follows 

Summative: 

Mid-term Test (30% of the final mark) Research Paper (60% of the final mark) Final Oral Exam (20% of the final mark) 

Description: A short-written examination composed of 6 open questions will be held in mid-term in order to understand how familiar the students have become with the arguments of the course. The questions will be based on the lessons of the teacher and on the mandatory text books by Sebastian Conrad and Akira Iriye. Only student who attended the 80% of the classes will be admitted to the mid-term tests. The time at students’ disposals will be 45 minutes. Every single answer will be evaluated from 0 to 5, therefore the highest possible mark in each mid- term test will be 30/30. Student will pass the mid-term if he will get at least 15/30. Students who will succeed the mid-term test will be admitted to the final oral exam where they will be asked to discuss the second block of the course and the chosen book. The mid-term marks will be valid until September 2021 exams round. Students who failed the mid-term test will have to undergo a final oral examination on all the program and the chosen books. 

A 2.500 to 3.000 words research paper (either in English or in Italian) will be submitted by the last week of the term. 

Non-Attending Students:

The assessment for this module is as follows 

Summative:

Final Oral Exam (100% of the final mark) 

Description: Non-attending students will have to undergo an oral examination on the general textbooks of the course and the two chosen books. 

Contact: enrico.acciai@uniroma2.it