Coordinator: ELİF ÜNLÜ
e-mail: elif.unlu@boun.edu.tr TB 526
office hours: Wednesdays 13:30-14:30 and by appointment
Teaching Assistants: hist105@boun.edu.tr
Uluğ Kuzuoğlu (head TA), ulugk@hotmail.com
Gizem Tongo, gizemtongo@yahoo.com
Sinem Erdoğan, sinem.erdogan@boun.edu.tr
Ayşe Esra Şirin, ayseesratopaloglu@gmail.com
Kerim Kartal, qerimqartal@yahoo.com
Lectures: MWF 4, GKM
Discussion sessions: Fridays,
Course Description:
The Making of the Modern World (Hist 105; Hist 106) is a two-semester elective course providing a thematic history of the world from ancient to modern times. The course surveys the major patterns and events of human activity from a global perspective within a broad chronological framework, while familiarizing students with interactions, parallellisms, and incongruities in the historical and cultural patterns of diverse societies and civilizations. The course aims to develop an understanding of modes and patterns of historical change, and provides a perspective on the complex ways in which the legacy of the past shapes our present.
The first part of the course (Hist 105) focuses on the ancient and the medieval world, and approaches the formation and transformations of specific social, political, cultural, and economic patterns through a global perspective. Beginning with the first steps of humanity and the first permanent settlements and urban centers of the ancient Near East, the course turns to the Ancient Greek, Roman, and East Asian civilizations. Broad historical transformations of the medieval era in the eastern Mediterranean, Europe, Middle East and Asia constitute the last main focus. For each of these three major periods, the course examines aspects of political, cultural, ideological and institutional structures and transformations, as well as aspects of daily life and material culture. Connections and interactions across spatial and cultural divides remain a focus throughout the survey.
Format:
The course is team-taught by members of the History Department. Each week’s lectures will be followed by one-hour discussion sessions on Fridays led by the teaching assistants.
There are two types of reading for the course. The textbook [P.N. Stearns, M. Adas, S.B. Schwartz, M.H. Gilbert, World Civilizations: The Global Experience (New York, 2008)], provides an introduction and background to the topics to be covered in the lectures. The primary source readings for each week introduce a set of particular issues and themes directly related to the lecture topics. The Friday sections with the teaching assistants will be devoted in part to the in-depth discussion and interpretation of the primary sources, and in part to the discussion of the main themes and issues of the week. Four historical movies or documentaries related to course themes will be screened through the semester.
It is highly important that you participate fully in the course by attending the lectures, doing the readings (preferably before lectures, certainly before the Friday discussion hours), and partaking in the discussions led by the teaching assistants.
All readings will be available as electronic documents on the Boğaziçi Library web site (go to Catalogue Search; Search Course Reserves). Stearns, et al, World Civilizations: The Global Experience is also available in the Boğaziçi University Bookstore. Lecture outlines and course announcements will be posted on the course website.
Requirements and grade distribution:
Mid-term exam: 40%
Final exam: 45%
Attendance and participation in discussion sessions: 15%