Introduction to Multi-Disciplinary Graduate Studies in History

Lecture 1 (Wednesday, September 22):

György Geréby and Constantin Iordachi: "Introduction to Multi-Disciplinary Studies"

Assigned Readings:

J. Assmann, Chapter 1, in Religion and cultural memory: Ten Studies; translated by Rodney Livingstone (Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2006).

Peter Burke, History and social theory (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2005), pp. 1-43. [pdf]

Jorge Luis Borges, Funes the memorious, available at http://faculty.washington.edu/timea/art360/funes.pdf  [pdf]

Optional Readings:

Zakhor, Yerushalmi J. H. ewish history and Jewish memory (Seattle: University of

Washington, 1996).

Kelley, Donald, Faces of History: Historical Inquiry from Herodotus to Herder (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) pp. 186-216.

Evans, R. J., “Historians and their facts”, in Richard J. Evans, In Defense of History (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2000), pp. 65-87.

Bloch, Marc, “History, Men, and Time,” The Historian’s Craft. Translated by Peter Putnam (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992), pp. 17-39.

Part I: Chaired by György Geréby

 Lecture 2 (Wednesday, September 29):

Assistant Professor Tijana Krstic, Medieval Studies Department: "Introduction to Islamic Studies"

This lecture will first briefly review history of what is today called "Islamic Studies" and examine the problems that plague this loosely defined discipline as well as related fields such as "Middle Eastern Studies," "Near Eastern Studies" as well as "Religious Studies." Students will learn about various methodologies used in the field of "Islamic STudies," both traditionally and today, and hear about their pros and cons. Finally, the lecture will discuss the key issues facing "Islamic Studies" today, beginning with the probem of the definition of the field of study (e.g., why is it acceptable to have "Islamic Studies," but not "Christian Studies"?  How can the subjects studied under the rubric of "Islamic Studies" be integrated into the broader context of humanities and social sciences?  What is particularly "Islamic" about certain social phenomena? How to go beyond Orientalist and Euro-centric concepts engrained in the tradition of Western scholarship on Islam?)  These questions will be related to the key issues in the study of Islam in the West (Europe and America) today, such as Islamic perspectives on modernity; Islamic perspectives on Western scholarship about Islam; the struggle for power and authority within Islamic community to define what Islam is, etc. These issues will be examined through the discussion of the assigned readings.

Omid Safi, "The Times Are A-Changin'--A Muslim Quest fo Justice, Gender Equality and Pluralism," in Progressive Muslims, edited by O. Safi (Oxford: Oneworld, 2003), 1-33 [pdf]
 
John Bowen, "Spells, Prayer, and the Power of Words," in Muslims Through Discourse (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 77-105. [pdf]

Lecture 3 (Wednesday, October 6):

Assistant Professor, Tolga Esmer, History Department: "Introduction to Ottoman Studies: Methods and Sources"

The first part of this lecture will discuss the nationalist, orientalist, and other types of pitfalls students have to overcometo study the Ottoman world and its successor states as well as the linguisticand cultural hurdles students face.  The secondhalf of the class will discuss the state of historiography in the field and discusshow the cultural turn is changing the way we understand the Ottoman period.  It is not so much that brand new sources havebeen discovered as much as the fact that we now approach staple sources thatsocio-economic historians have approached as repositories of “hard-data” foreconomic tabulation as narrative sources and read in between the lines of Ottomanadministrators.  In the field of Ottomanstudies, we have an overwhelming amount of archival material, especially afterthe 18th century, but we now have new technologies and approaches tosources that allow us to reconstruct the lives of humbler individuals, groups,communities, and trans-regional networks that question many of the assumptions,abstractions, and macro-economic or macro-sociological paradigms that dominatedour understanding of the field for decades. Thus, this second part of the class will discuss how younger scholarsnow learn different languages in addition to Ottoman Turkish and approach sourceson a much more microhistorical level to come up with a new generation ofscholarship about the Ottoman world and its successor states.

Assigned Readings:

Leslie Pierce, Chapter 3: "Introducing the Court of 'Aintab," in Morality Tales: Law and Gender in the Ottoman Court of Aintab (Berkeley: University of California, 2003), pp. 86-125. [pdf]

Johann Strauss, S. Faroqhi and F. Adinir, eds., "Ottoman Rule Experiences and Remembered: Remarks on Some Local Greek Chronicles of the Tourkokratia," in The Ottomans and the Balkans: A Discussion of Historiography (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 193-222.  [pdf]

Lecture 4 (Wednesday, October 13):

Associate Professor Katalin Szende, Medieval Studies Department: “Introduction to Graduate Studies in History – Urban History”

The first part of the lecture addresses the issue of medieval urban development in the light of changing trends in historiography. It demonstrates how the main defining criteria of a town changed – from legal to socio-economic, spatial, and then to cultural – together with the favored source types used and with changes of the sub-disciplines in the forefront of current interests. Within this general framework which characterizes the whole of Europe, special features of urban development in Eastern and Central Europe will be pointed out, such as the later start of the urbanization process and the prevalence of small towns. In the second part, the contribution of topographical research will be discussed, to show how the involvement of topographic methods and cartographic and visual evidence changes our understanding of urban origins and town life in the Middle Ages.

Assigned Readings:

Rodger, Richard, “Urban History: prospect and retrospect,” in Urban History 19/1 (April 1992), 1-22 (esp. 6-22). [pdf]

Schofield, John and Alan Vince, Medieval Towns. Chapter 2: “Topographical factors in the growth of towns,” London, New York: Continuum, 2003 (Second edition), 31-78. [pdf]

Power Point: Urban History [ppt]

Lecture 5 (Wednesday, October 20):

Associate Professor Niels Gaul, Medieval Studies Department: “Byzantium vs. Byzantinism, or: Turning Byzantium Postcolonially” 

Postcolonial studies are commonly associated with nineteenth- and twentieth-century India, Africa, the Caribbean, perhaps Canada, Australia, or Ireland; with (early) modern empires such as the British, Spanish, or Portuguese. What then do postcolonial studies have to do with Byzantium, a late antique polity turned medieval, and ultimately swallowed into the emerging Ottoman empire – about four decades before Columbus discovered the ‘New World’ providing a starting-point, as it were, for the historical processes summarily described as ‘colonial’?

The first half of the lecture will explore the notion of ‘Byzantinism’ and ‘Balkanism’ – following the recent account of Dimiter Angelov as assigned in the readings – arguing that the recent shift of heuristic parameters defined by the so-called ‘postcolonial turn’ has visibly changed the image of Byzantium, and Byzantine studies, over the past fifteen or so years; in doing so, we shall arrive at a better understanding of what Byzantium was and how present Byzantine studies approach their subject matter. The second part of the lecture, based on the two readings from Jonathan Sheppard you are invited to choose from, shall explore the question to which degree Byzantium itself was a colonializing power and if so, where Byzantium as an ‘empire’ succeeded – and where it failed.

Assigned readings:

D. G. Angelov, ‘Byzantinism: the imaginary and real heritage of Byzantium in Southeastern Europe’, in D. Keridis, E. Elias-Bursać, N. Yatromanolakis (eds), New approaches to Balkan studies (Dulles, VA: Brassey’s, 2003), pp. 3–23. [pdf]

J. Shepard, ‘The Byzantine Commonwealth’, in M. Angold (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Christianity, V: Eastern Christianity (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 3–52 OR [pdf]

J. Shepard, ‘Byzantium’s overlapping circles’, in E. Jeffreys (ed.), Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies, London, 21–26 August, 2006, I:plenary papers (Aldershot, 2006), pp. 15–55 [pdf]

Lecture 6 (Wednesday, October 27):

Associate Professor Daniel Ziemann, Medieval Studies Department: “Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages”

There may be no other subject in medieval history that can demonstrate the interrelations between the political and social circumstances than the concept of peoples. No other field has been so intensively dominated by national historiography and so closely linked with the political processes of the European nations. The idea of people as historical entities played a crucial part in national histories and still continues to do so. The spirit of romanticism together with the need for self identification developed, on the one hand, historical works of high quality and, on the other hand, historiography that was dominated by the need to supply each nation with its own national history. It is only during the last 30 years that these patterns were refuted by a new model of ethno-genesis that accentuates the heterogeneity of ethnic groups in early medieval times. The concept of peoples is no longer accepted as a fixed point for understanding the building of political units. Instead, most areas of historical science suggest a strong distinction between concepts of linguistic, archaeological, biological, and political aspects. Some parts of the scientific community go even further and try to avoid speaking about peoples at all. The lecture tries to summarize this ongoing research debate that reflects the rise and fall of new paradigms in historical research. It will refer to prominent examples like the Goths or Bulgarians.

Assigned Readings: 

Heather, Peter J., “Ethnicity, Group Identity, and Social Status in the Migration Period,” in Franks, Northmen, and Slavs: Identities and State Formation in Early Medieval Europe, eds. Ildar H. Garipzanov, Patrick Geary, Przemyslaw Urbanczyk (Turnhout, 2008), 17-49. [pdf] 

Part II: Chaired by Constantin Iordachi

Lecture 7 (Wednesday, November 3):

Associate Professor Constantin Iordachi, History Department: "Comparative History: Legacy, Prospects and Challenges"

The aim of this class is to provide a comprehensive introduction into the history and methodology of comparative history. The comparative method is a fundamental method of research in social sciences. The generalized usage of the comparative method in social sciences originated during the Enlightenment, when, stimulated by centuries of great geographical discoveries, European thinkers engaged in a systematic comparative study of contemporary societies. From its eighteenth century origins, the application of the comparative method has been interdisciplinary, being originally used in the fields of economy, politics, linguistics, and legal studies. Since Bloch’s path-breaking insights in the interwar period, the comparative method have been widely employed in history. More recently, the comparative method has been under critical scrutiny from innovative approaches and angles of research. New analytical frameworks have been elaborated for approaching global, continental, or regional history from cross-national or trans-national perspectives, such as world history, shared or entangled history, histoire croisée and the history of transfers. Although arguably stemming from the tradition of comparative history, these new transnational approaches attempt to critically re-evaluate the comparative method and to shift the focus of research from variable-dependent methodology and causal reasoning to multiple levels of interaction.

Assigned Readings:

Bloch, Marc. "A Contribution towards a Comparative History of European Societies," in Land and Work in Medieval Europe, pp. 44-81. [pdf]

Haupt, Heinz-Gerhard and Jürgen Kocka, "Comparative History: Methods, Aims, Problems" in Deborah Cohen, Maura O’Connor, eds., Comparison and History. Europe in Cross-National Perspective (New York, 2004), pp. 23-39. [pdf]

Michael Werner and Bénédicte Zimmermann. "Beyond Comparison: Histoire croisée and the Challenge of reflexivity," History and Theory, 45 (Feb. 2006) 1: 30-50. [pdf]

Philipp Ther. "Beyond the Nation: The Relational Basis of a Comparative History of Germany and Europe." Central European History, 36 (2003): 45-73. [pdf]

Lecture 8 (Wednesday, November 10):

Associate Professor Karl Hall "Multi-Disciplinary Methods in Intellectual History"

Assigned Readings:

Leonard Krieger, „The Autonomy of Intellectual History,” Journal of the History of Ideas 34, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1973), pp. 499-516.  http://www.jstor.org/stable/2708884 [pdf]

M. Norton Wise, „Architectures for steam,” in Peter Galison and Emily Thompson, eds., The Architecture of Science (1999), 107-140.  [pdf]

Lecture 9 (Wednesday, November 17):

Professor Victor Karady, History Department: "Sociology and Social History"

Based on nineteenth century origins and with strong ties with the emerging social sciences, above all sociology, anthropology, and social statistics, social history represented a multifarious reorientation of the historical discipline from the study of events and personalities to that of collectives, institutions and global societal developments since the early 20th century. This presentation would stress the new targets, research fields and methodological approaches it brought about as well as the various interconnection the thus established historical discipline cultivated with some major paradigms of the explanation of the social world, such as Marxism, Max Weber’s and Durkheim’s sociology (the Annales school), the empirical study of social movements, etc. A summary roster of the main thematic issues raised by recent socio-historical scholarship will serve as a conclusion.  

Assigned Readings:

Stearns, Peter, "The Generations of Social History" in Peter Stearns (ed.), Encyclopaedia of European Social History, from 1350 to 2000, Vol.1. Detroit, etc., Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2001, pp. 3-29; [pdf]

Kaelble, Hartmut, "Comparative European Social History", in Peter Stearns (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of European Social History, from 1350 to 2000, Vol.1. Detroit, etc., Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2001, pp. 113-121. [pdf]

Optional Readings:

Mary Lindemann, "The Sources of Social History" (pp. 31-39); Peter Burke, "The Annales Paradigm" (pp. 41-48); Bryan D. Palmer, "Marxism and Radical History" (pp. 49-60); Louise A. Tilly, "Interdisciplinary Contacts and Influences" (pp. 61-69); Michael. P. Hanagan, "Cliometrics and Quantification" (pp. 71-81).

Bonnie G. Smith, "Gender Theory"; Karl Appuhn, "Microhistory" (pp. 105-112); Peter Stearns, "Perodization in Social History" (pp. 125-130), in Peter Stearns (ed.), Encyclopaedia of European Social History, from 1350 to 2000, Detroit, etc., Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2001.

Lecture 10 (Wednesday, November 24):

Associate Professor Carsten Wilke: "Historiographic concerns in Jewish Studies"

Jewish Studies are not a discipline, but an interdisciplinary subject field. As in most area studies, scientific approaches have followed the collectivity's shifting self-definition, which was predominantly religious in the pre-modern age, acculturated in the 19th, Zionist in the 20th, and is becoming multi-cultural in the 21st century. But Jewish civilization has also been given relevance by external scholarship, due to its impact on Christianity and its position as the most permanent religious minority in the West, the very embodiment of "the Other". Humanist Hebraism studied Jewish texts among the sources of Western culture; in newer research, Jewish history became a paradigmatic model in minority, diaspora, intercultural, and genocide studies. Internal as well as external approaches of this scripture-based diaspora community face a constitutive tension between textual authorities and social life, which demands the joint use of philological and historical methods. The source I have chosen to exemplify current historiography is the legal decision by which Meir ben Baruch of Rothenburg (c.1215-1293) abolished the office of the godmother in the circumcision rite. A fine analysis in the light of cultural anthropology, comparative religion and gender history is given by Elisheva Baumgarten, Mothers and Children: Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004, pp. 70-89).

Assigned Readings:

David N. Myers, "Between diaspora and Zion: History, memory, and the Jerusalem scholars", in: Myers et al., ed., The Jewish past revisited: reflections on modern Jewish historians (New Haven, Ct: Yale University Press, 1998), pp. 88-103. [pdf]

Moshe Rosman, "Prolegomenon to the study of Jewish cultural history", in Rosman, How Jewish is Jewish History? (Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2007), pp. 131-153. [pdf]

Optional Readings:

Joseph Dan, “The narratives of medieval Jewish history,” in Martin Goodman et al., ed., The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 141-152.

Simon Dubnow, Jewish History: An essay in the philosophy of history ([1898], Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1927) (read chap. III-IV on www.gutenberg.org/etext/7836).

Heinrich Graetz, “Judaism can be understood only through its history” [1846], in: Michael A. Meyer, ed., Ideas of Jewish History (New York: Behrman, 1987), pp. 219-244 (read p. 228-239 on Google Books).

Charles E. Vernoff, “The contemporary study of religion and the academic teaching of Judaism,” in Zev Garber, ed., Academic approaches to teaching Jewish studies (Lanham: Unversity Press of America, 2000), pp. 1-29 (read p. 1-10 on Google Books).

Lecture 11 (Wednesday, December 1):

Assistant Professor Matthias Riedl, History Department: "Religious Studies and the problem of experience"

In the course of the last two decades religion has become an omnipresent topic of public discourses, inside and outside academia. Yet these discourses mostly present religion as something utterly irrational and as a challenge to modern “secular reason”. The question arises if religion can be rationalized to the degree that it can be the subject of a methodogically sound academic discipline. This question, however, is anything but new; it permeates the history of religious studies from the earliest beginnings of the discipline. And it brings about questions: Can religion be studied in a given historical context like other social realities, as the “historical school” suggests? Or are the empirically observable religious practices and institutions just the visible surface of a more profound and hidden reality: the reality of experience and consciousness, as the “phenomenological school” argues? Are religions historically contingent or do they – despite their vast variety – result from a common “religious nature” of man. More recently, postmodern and cognitivist approaches have established new perspectives on these questions, but the questions have remained the same. The lecture will discuss some of the key arguments but also show that the basic questions of the debate transcend the field of religion and are related to general problems of historiography.

Required readings:

Eliade, Mircea, “The History of Religions in Retrospect: 1912-1962,” in Journal of Bible and Religion, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Apr., 1963), pp. 98-109. [pdf]

James, William, The Varieties of Religious Experiences, New York 2004, pp.359-384. [pdf]

Otto, Rudolph, “The Holy,” in Sociology and Religion: A Collection of Readings, ed. Andrew M. Greeley, New York 1995, pp.68-79. [pdf]

Optional readings:

Jakelic, Slavica and Jessica Starling, “Religious Studies: A Bibliographic Essay,” in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 74, no. 1 (March 2006), pp. 194-211. [pdf]

Lippy, Charles H., “Religious Studies: The Shaping of a Field and a Guide to Reference Resources,” in OAH Magazine of History, vol. 6, no. 3 (winter 1992), pp. 10-14. [pdf]

Lecture 12 (Wednesday, December 8):

Gyorgy Gereby and Constantin Iordachi: "Conclusions: Multi-Disciplinary Methodologies in Historical Studies"

Assigned Readings:

Peter Burke, “Post-Modernity and Postmodernism,” History and social theory (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2005), 172-189.

Required Readings:

In addition to the short readings assigned by the lecturers to every lecture, the following books are strongly recommended for writing the final essay on methodology:

Peter Burke, ed., New perspectives on historical writing (University Park, Penn.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992).

Stefan Titscher, Michael Meyer, Ruth Wodak and Eva Vetter, Methods of text and discourse analysis, translated by Bryan Jenner (London: SAGE, 2000).

Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer, eds., Methods of critical discourse analysis (London: SAGE, 2001).

 Peter Burke, History and social theory (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2005).