University of Toronto Mississauga

Department of Historical Studies

Winter-2014-HIS493H5-S-LEC0101:
Advanced Topics in Global History
Tuesday, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Prof. Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi <m.tavakoli@utoronto.ca>
Office: Room 153, North Building
Office hours: 8:00-10:45 or by appointment
I. Course Description
The aim of this course is to engage students in ongoing philosophical and historiographical debates
concerning modernity, globality, historicity, narrativity and the historical representation of reality. All
students are required to apply the critical approaches and concepts learned in this course to a final
research.
II. Course Requirements
1. Biweekly analyses for a total of 5 one-page papers. These analyses should be made available
to other students via the course portal at least 24 hours prior to each class meeting. Penalty
for lateness: 5% per day.
2. All students are expected to participate actively in class discussions. Failure to do so will have
a detrimental effect on your grade!
3. One short memo-proposal describing your research paper due by February 11th. This should
be accompanied by a concise title and a one-page working bibliography identifying both
primary and secondary sources. Total reliance on electronic materials is strongly
discouraged. Penalty for lateness: 5% per day.
4. A final research paper directed toward a professional audience other than the course
instructor. Students are expected to present their papers at a public symposium on April
1st. The final paper is due on April 4th.
III. Grades
You will be evaluated by attendance, intellectual quality of participation in the course, and by the
quality of your written papers. Assignments are due every week; you must submit your research
proposal by February 11th. You are required to present you paper on April 1st. The final draft of your
research paper is due no later than April 4th.
Percentages will be assigned on this following basis:
1. Biweekly analyses and critiques: 25%
2. Proposal and Bibliography: 10%
3. Participation in class discussion: 20%
4. Symposium Presentation: 15%
5. Final Research Paper: 30%

IV. Preliminary Reading Schedule

Week 1, January 7: Introduction to theoretical perspectives/frames
Week 2, January 14: Universal History
Immanuel Kant, "Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose," in Kant: Political Writings,
ed. Hans Reiss (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), 41-53.
Week 3, January 21: Hegels Philosophy of History
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Philosophy of History, ed. Charles Hegel and trans. J. Sibree
(Kitchener, 2001), 1-128.
Week 4, January 28: History at the Limit I
Ranajit Guha, History at the Limit of World-History (New York: Columbia University Press,2002), 1-47.
Week 5, February 4: History at the Limit II
Ranajit Guha, History at the Limit of World-History (New York: Columbia University Press,2002), 48-99.
Week 6, February 11: Provincializing Europe
Research Proposal Due!
Dipesh Chakrabarty, Postcoloniality and the Artifice of History: Who Speaks for "Indian" Pasts?
Representations, No. 37 (Winter, 1992), 1-26.
Week 7, February 18: Reading Week
Week 8, February 25: Modernity and Historicity
Reinhart Koselleck, "Modernity and the Planes of Historicity" in Futures Past: On the Semantics of
Historical Time (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1985), 3-20.
Week 8, March 4: Modernity and Temporality
Peter Osborn, Modernity and Temporality is a Qualitative, Not a Chronological, Category, New Left
Review, 192 (March-April 1992), 65-84.
Week 10, March 11: The Longue Dure
Fernand Braudel, "History and the Social Sciences: The Longue Dure," in On History, trans. by Sarah
Mathews (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980). 25-54.
Week 11, March 18: World History in a Global Age
Michael Geyer and Charles Bright, World History in a Global Age, The American Historical Review,
100:4 (Oct. 1995), 1034-1060.
Week 12, March 25: Historical Narrative
Allan Megill, "Grand Narrative and the Discipline of History," in A New Philosophy of History, ed.
Frank Ankersmit and Hans Kellner (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 151-173.
Allan Megill, "Recounting the Past: Description, Explanation, and Narrative in Historiography." The
American Historical Review 94.3 (1989): 627-653.
Week 13, April 1: Course Symposium