Spring Quarter 2025

HIGL 126: Ecstasy: History Transcendence: How and why have people tried to change their experience of the world by seeking temporary ecstatic states of consciousness? This course surveys attempts across global history, from the mystery cults of ancient Greece through the mystical experiences available in all religions to the use of psychedelics for mental health treatments down to contemporary raves and Burning Man festivals.

To enroll: Submit an EASY request via webreg

HILA 144P.  Public Hist/Spanish California: This course surveys the history of Spanish California or Alta California from the period just before Spanish contact in 1542 through California’s admission to the Union in 1850. It considers the history of early California from the perspective of Native peoples, Afro-Californians, ethnoracially diverse populations, and Spaniards.

This is a lecture course, but it is also meant to be experiential. Students will spend at least fifty percent of the class working with archival sources in the Special Collections division of the library, databases, and exploring off-campus historical sites. Topics include indigenous lifeways, the mission system, the development of early towns and pueblos, the Californios, the United States/Mexican War, the Bear Flag Republic, the Gold Rush, and California’s admission into the United States. The history of Spanish California offers an opportunity to consider indigenous responses to colonial institutions and authorities, the twilight of Spanish rule, the sociopolitical dynamics of Mexican rule, and the tensions and challenges generated by Anglo infiltration of the area, the Gold Rush, and statehood.

To enroll: Submit an EASY request via webreg

HISA 101: South Asia in Global History: This course studies the history of South Asia in relation to global connectedness and comparisons, particularly movements across the Indian Ocean world and relations between Asia and the West. Analyzing the history of global movements of peoples, goods, and ideas from South Asia, it explores such themes as trade, colonialism and anti-colonialism, migration, slavery and indentured labor, and international literary and cultural movements.

To enroll: Submit an EASY request via webreg

HISA 120: Race and Empire in South Asia: This course explores the multifarious and entrenched histories of racial imperialism in the state, society, and political economy of colonial and post-colonial India and South Asia. It analyzes the specific history of race and empire in South Asia, in relation to connections across the Indian Ocean, to analyze the global history of race - as a form of social inequality, as a mode of structuring relations of capital and labor, and as a strategy of governance.

To enroll: Submit an EASY request via webreg

Freshman Seminars:

What Is Socialism? (And What Isn't): Socialism has recently become a very hot topic in American politics -- something that people are fighting for and fighting against. Conservatives, libertarians, and others on the political "right" continue their long tradition of rejecting as "socialism" a wide range of policies they do not like. But many progressives and others on the "left," inspired by Bernie Sanders and like-minded activists, have recently started to embrace this label (after running away from it in the past).

Sun, Sea, Sand & Sex: Tourism: Course description coming soon.