The History of 2022

How can we understand the events, ideas, and conflicts that have featured in the news cycle during the past year? “The History of 2022” offers historically informed reflections on this year’s momentous events, providing an opportunity to understand our world in its historic context. Each week will feature a different History faculty member speaking on a major news topic of the year, showing what we can learn by approaching it from a historical perspective. The course is open to all students (newcomers and history veterans alike) who want to reflect on the challenges and opportunities of 2022, and who are curious to consider how studying history can offer a deeper and richer understanding of tumultuous times.

See HISTORY 1 on ExploreCourses

Course Coordinator:

Professor Jonathan Gienapp 

Details:

  • 1 unit, Credit/No Credit
  • One lecture every week
  • Attendance required
  • Short readings may be posted in conjunction with some lectures
  • Tuesdays, 9:30-10:20 AM
  • Bishop Auditorium 

 

Speakers and Topics:

September 27     Amir Weiner

Putin's War: Causes, Course, and Consequences of the War in Ukraine

 

October 4     Gil-li Vardi 

War 2022. Is Conventional War Back?

 

October 11     Kathryn Olivarius 

Fear and Abandonment: Remembering Yellow Fever, Syphilis, and HIV/AIDS in an Era of Long Covid and Monkeypox

 

October 18     Gabrielle Hecht

Trashed! A Waste History of our Planetary Predicament

 

October 25     Estelle Freedman

The Unsettled History of Abortion in the U.S.

 

November 1      James Campbell 

The Politics of White Supremacy:  Historical Perspectives

 

November 8     No Class - Democracy Day: Day of Civic Service

 

November 15     Jonathan Gienapp

Constitutional Originalism and the U.S. Supreme Court: The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement

 

November 22     No Class - Thanksgiving Recess

 

November 29     Jennifer Burns 

American Conservatism in the Age of Trump

 

December 6     Thomas Mullaney

The Taiwan Crisis: a Century in the Making