FD-HS: Historical Studies
NOTE: Students who started taking classes at Northwestern in Spring 2023 or earlier should refer to the Area IV: Historical Studies page. The information below pertains to students who start at Northwestern after Spring 2023.
Historical studies examine change over time in a wide variety of spheres, including beliefs, cultures, economics, intellectual thought, politics, and society. The scale and scope of offerings in this area range from the local or regional to the global and from the origins of human society to the present day. Students learn to assess, analyze, and interpret primary and secondary sources (for example, documents, testimonies, texts, artifacts, images) and use them to develop arguments in oral and written form. Courses in historical studies teach critical methods including: evaluation of evidence, understanding conditions under which historical actors operated, comprehension of cause and consequence, tracing patterns (continuities and ruptures), comparative analysis of sources, and modes of historical argumentation.
learning objectives
Courses in Historical Studies are designed to achieve a combination of the following learning outcomes:
- Acquire knowledge of historical phenomena (cultural, economic, intellectual, political, and social practices and their interdependent development over time in their local, regional, and/or global contexts) and become familiar with relevant primary and secondary sources
- Develop skills of historical analysis, including the means to evaluate sources; become acquainted with scholarly historical demonstration, discussion, and debate
- Appreciate the impact of historical developments; acquire historical perspective on the present; consider agency and subjectivity in the context of the times; reflect on the varieties of memory and experience
- Express the results of historical investigation effectively and persuasively in written, oral and visual forms, and engage in debate with other narrators and interpreters of history, both past and present
Choosing courses
You may opt to gain a deeper understanding of a single region or era--the Middle East, the twentieth century--by taking two courses in a theme, or opt to choose courses that address more divergent topics.
Approved Courses
| Subject | Number | Title |
| ANTHRO | 327-0 | Historical Archaeology |
| ANTHRO | 329-0 | Archaeology and Nationalism (with HUM 329-0)2 |
| ANTHRO | 370-0 | Anthropology in Historical Perspective |
| ART_HIST | 220-0 | Introduction to African Art (or may be applied to FD-LA)2 |
| ART_HIST | 222-0 | Introduction to Art of the African Diaspora (or may be applied to FD-LA)2 |
| ART_HIST | 225-0 | Introduction to Medieval Art (or may be applied to FD-LA) |
| ART_HIST | 232-0 | Introduction to the History of Architecture: 1400 to Present (or may be applied to FD-LA)2 |
| ART_HIST | 235-0 | Introduction to Latin American Art (or may be applied to FD-LA)2 |
| ART_HIST | 240-0 | Introduction to Asian Art (or may be applied to FD-LA)2 |
| ART_HIST | 250-0 | Introduction to Early Modern European Art (or may be applied to FD-LA) |
| ART_HIST | 255-0 | Introduction to Modernism (or may be applied to FD-LA)2 |
| ART_HIST | 320-1 | Medieval Art Byzantine (or may be applied to FD-LA) |
| ART_HIST | 330-1 | Early Modern European Art 1400-1500 (or may be applied to FD-LA) |
| ART_HIST | 340-1 | Baroque Art: Italy & Spain 1600-1800 (or may be applied to FD-LA)2 |
| ART_HIST | 342-0 | Eighteenth-Century European Art (or may be applied to FD-LA)2 |
| ART_HIST | 350-1 | 19th Century Art 1: 1789-1848 (or may be applied to FD-LA)2 |
| ART_HIST | 350-2 | 19th Century Art 2: 1848-1914 (or may be applied to FD-LA)2 |
| ART_HIST | 360-1 | 20th Century Art 1 (or may be applied to FD-LA)2 |
| ART_HIST | 386-0 | Art of Africa (or may be applied to FD-LA)2 |
| BLK_ST | 212-2 | Introduction to African American History: Emancipation to Civil Rights Movement (with HISTORY 212-2)1 |
| BLK_ST | 220-0 | Civil Rights and Black Liberation1 |
| BLK_ST | 315-0 | Religion in the Black Atlantic (or may be applied to FD-LA) |
| CLASSICS | 211-0 | Greek History and Culture (or may be applied to FD-LA) |
| CLASSICS | 260-0 | Classical Mythology (or may be applied to FD-LA) |
| CLASSICS | 310-0 | Archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean (or may be applied to FD-LA) |
| CLASSICS | 314-0 | Topics in Ancient Science and Technology |
| CLASSICS | 320-0 | Greek and Roman History |
| CLASSICS | 330-0 | Ancient Economy |
| CLASSICS | 380-0 | Classical Reception Studies (or may be applied to FD-LA) |
| ENGLISH | 302-0 | History of the English Language (or may be applied to FD-LA) |
| ENVR_POL | 309-0 | American Environmental History (with HISTORY 309-0)1 |
| ENVR_POL | 340-0 | Global Environments and World History (with HISTORY 376-0) (or may be applied to FD-SBS)2 |
| GBL_HLTH | 309-0 | Biomedicine and World History (with HISTORY 379-0) (or FD-SBS)2 |
| GBL_HLTH | 325-0 | History of Reproductive Health2 |
| GERMAN | 349-0 | History of the Holocaust (with HISTORY 349-0)2 |
| GNDR_ST | 230-0 | Traditions in Feminist Thought1 |
| GNDR_ST | 321-0 | Gender, Sexuality, and History |
| GNDR_ST | 324-0 | U.S. Gay and Lesbian History (with HISTORY 324-0)1 |
| HISTORY | 200-0 | New Introductory Courses in History |
| HISTORY | 201-2 | Europe in the Modern World2 |
| HISTORY | 203-1 | Jewish History 750-14922 |
| HISTORY | 210-1 | History of the United States, Precolonial to the Civil War1 |
| HISTORY | 210-2 | History of the United States, Reconstruction to the Present1 |
| HISTORY | 211-0 | American Wars1 |
| HISTORY | 212-2 | Introduction to African American History: Emancipation to Civil Rights Movement (with BLK_ST 212-2)1 |
| HISTORY | 215-0 | History of the American Family |
| HISTORY | 219-0 | History of the Present |
| HISTORY | 249-0 | The End of Citizenship (or FD-SBS)2 |
| HISTORY | 250-1 | Global History I2 |
| HISTORY | 250-2 | Global History II2 |
| HISTORY | 251-0 | The Politics of Disaster: A Global Environmental History (or may be applied to FD-SBS)2 |
| HISTORY | 253-0 | A Global History of Prison and Camps (or FD-EET)2 |
| HISTORY | 254-0 | Global Entrepreneurs |
| HISTORY | 260-2 | History of Latin America (or FD-SBS)2 |
| HISTORY | 275-1 | History of Early Modern Science and Medicine2 |
| HISTORY | 275-2 | History of Modern Science and Medicine2 |
| HISTORY | 281-0 | Chinese Civilization |
| HISTORY | 286-0 | World War II in Asia2 |
| HISTORY | 292-0 | Introduction to Topics in History |
| HISTORY | 300-0 | New Lectures in History |
| HISTORY | 305-0 | American Immigration (with LEGAL_ST 305-0)1 |
| HISTORY | 309-0 | American Environmental History (with ENVR_POL 309-0)1 |
| HISTORY | 310-1 | Early American History: Conquest and Colonization, to 16881 |
| HISTORY | 319-0 | History of US Foreign Relations1 |
| HISTORY | 324-0 | U.S. Gay and Lesbian History (with GNDR_ST 324-0)1 |
| HISTORY | 327-0 | Histories of Violence in the United States1 |
| HISTORY | 330-0 | Medieval Sex |
| HISTORY | 340-0 | Gender, War, and Revolution in the 20th Century2 |
| HISTORY | 343-0 | Modern Italy |
| HISTORY | 345-1 | History of Russia: 800-1700 |
| HISTORY | 349-0 | History of the Holocaust (with GERMAN 349-0)2 |
| HISTORY | 351-0 | Europe in the Age of Total War (or FD-EET)2 |
| HISTORY | 352-0 | Global History of Death and Dying (or may be applied to FD-EET)2 |
| HISTORY | 370-0 | Music and Nation in Latin America (or FD-SBS)2 |
| HISTORY | 376-0 | Global Environments and World History (with ENVR_POL 340-0) (or may be applied to FD-SBS)2 |
| HISTORY | 379-0 | Biomedicine and World History (with GBL_HLTH 309-0) (or FD-SBS)2 |
| HISTORY | 381-3 | China in Reform2 |
| HISTORY | 382-0 | The Modern Japanese City2 |
| HISTORY | 385-1 | From Taj to Raj: Early Modern India, ca 1500-18002 |
| HISTORY | 385-2 | History of Modern South Asia2 |
| HISTORY | 386-2 | History of Modern Southeast Asia Until 19452 |
| HUM | 211-0 | Humanities in the World II |
| HUM | 325-4 | Humanities in the Digital Age |
| HUM | 329-0 | Archaeology and Nationalism (with ANTHRO 329-0)2 |
| HUM | 370-4 | Special Topics in the Humanities |
| JWSH_ST | 280-4 | Topics in Israel Studies |
| LEGAL_ST | 305-0 | American Immigration (with HISTORY 305-0)1 |
| LEGAL_ST | 347-0 | Comparative Race & Ethnicity1 |
| RELIGION | 360-0 | African American Religions (or may be applied to FD-EET)2 |
| SLAVIC | 390-0 | History and Culture in Central and Eastern Europe |
1 Also Overlay 1: U.S. Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity
2 Also Overlay 2: Global Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity
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