Descriptions Archive

HIST 4916:

Fall 2026

Overview: This seminar explores the material culture and culture of consumerism in 1980s Canada, from malls and marketing to forms of technology and media that became fundamental components for the formation of social identities. We will think about what it means to study media, technology, and culture in what was arguably the last analog decade. We will bring a distinctly Canadian view on what the 1980s meant, from Expo ’86 to CanCon regulations to moral panics over music, sexuality, and games. We will discuss bad fashion, good music, and consider how nostalgia has shaped our views of the decade that shaped Generation X.

Your research projects will explore and present the multiple meanings attached to 1980s material culture through interviews and research on how consumer objects were marketed. As a seminar in Public History, our overall objective is to consider how we can tell stories about past material objects and past technologies, even if these are ‘recent’ pasts. How can we avoid reactive forms of nostalgia and use objects to reflect on wider social practices?  How can we comprehend the wider significance of consumer items between the marketing assumptions and the stories of their use? What stories of media consumption can we (should we) tell of a pre-digital age, and what are the limitations in what can be told?

Class Format: This is an in-person, student-led seminar in a three-hour block. Some weeks may be set aside for off-site visits, tbd.

Text: No textbook is required but you may be required to watch 80s media content of questionable taste.

Questions? Please email me at: james.opp@carleton.ca

HIST 2314A:

Winter 2027

Instructor: Professor James Opp

Introduction: This course addresses a wide range of issues in Canadian social and cultural History by examining three distinct but overlapping spheres of “social” life: Home, Work, and Play. Dividing the course into thematic sections allows for a deeper investigation of gender, class, race, sexuality, and the spaces where they interact. It is impossible to cover every aspect of Canada’s social history, but we will selectively explore how the textures of everyday life have changed between the beginning of the nineteenth century and the end of the twentieth.

History 2304 also introduces students to the methodological and conceptual issues involved in doing social-cultural history. In this vein, we will discuss many of the problems and issues facing social and cultural historians and how they have sought to overcome the inherent limitations of historical work in this field.

Class Format: This class meets twice a week ; some classes will be lecture-based, some will be designated workshop periods, and some will combine both elements to different degrees.

Aims and Goals: The content of this course allows students to put their contemporary social and cultural lives into a broader context, and to appreciate the deep power relationships that have historically formed them. The course also provides a mentored learning experience of how to plan and manage a significant research project. Finally, there is a unique focus in the course in learning how to give historical, deconstructive “readings” of a wide range of visual culture – advertising, photography, film, comics, and other media.

Assessment: Students can expect a combination of reading quizzes, section exams, workshop activities, and a laddered research project. Exact details on these TBC.

Text:  James Opp and John C. Walsh, eds., Home, Work, and Play: Situating Canadian Social History 3^rd ed. (Oxford University Press, 2015).  Please note the third edition is 65% different from the second edition and 95% different from the first edition.  It is therefore critical to have the correct version!

Questions? Please email james.opp@carleton.ca

2027 Winter Term
Instructor: James Opp
 



Photograph of a colour slide from
the South Street Seaport Museum
Barbara Mensch
“The Nobility of Work” exhibition
Detail from Danish Photo Album, 1971
Royal Library, Copenhagen
 
 
Scope & Objectives: This course explores the social history of photography/photographic practices, with an eye towards unravelling the methodological and theoretical issues that complicate the use of photographs as evidence of “the past.” Through seminar discussions and assignments, we will contextualize the historical production of photographs while at the same time problematizing how photographs are used to visualize history. By exposing the power relations invested in photographic practices, we will critically assess how the archiving, collecting, publishing, and exhibiting of photographs have historically and continue to serve as sites of contested memory.
 
This course does not aspire to offer a comprehensive survey of photographers, detail the technical history of cameras and film, or compare photographic styles as a function of art. No photographic technical ability is required. Rather, through selective themes and case examples, we will trace the power of photographic representations, consider their materiality, and reconsider how scholars employ, utilize, and come to terms with photographs and photographic practice.
 
Class Format & Readings: This is an in-person, student-led seminar in a three-hour block. Some weeks may be set aside for field trip or archive work, depending upon availability and access. Graduate-level participation and engagement with the course material will be expected. No textbook for this class is required, but readings will be made available. 
 
Assignments: Assignments will focus on analyzing and working with photographs in spaces of public history. Exact form and format, TBA.  
 
Who do I contact?  Please email james.opp@carleton.ca  (see also jamesopp.com for more information about the instructor)

HIST 2915A: History of the Modern Middle East
Winter 2027

Instructor: Hussam R. Ahmed

Course Description: 

This course equips students with the tools necessary to think, read and write critically about the modern Middle East. We will be dealing with the political, social and cultural history of the region following the end of the First World War to the Arab Spring.

The course starts with a survey of the Ottoman Empire that dominated much of the region from the 16^th Century. We then have a close look at the shifting balance of power with Europe and the rise of European imperialism in the 19^th century. Next, we have a close look at how the First World War drew the map of the region as we study the formation of new states and their development in the interwar period. We then follow a number of key issues that have dominated 20^th-century Middle Eastern history. Among them are, Zionism, Israel and the Palestinian struggle for nationhood; Nasserism and Pan-Arabism; the Lebanese civil war, the Iranian Revolution and the rise of political Islam; the politics of oil and the Gulf War. We end the course with a look at the unprecedented wave of revolutionary activity that engulfed the region in the 21^st century.

Organization:

This class will meet in person. Our time will be split between lectures and in-class discussions.

HIST 4915A: Anti-Colonial Resistance in the Modern Middle East
Winter 2027

Instructor: Hussam R. Ahmed

Course Description: 

By the end of the First World War, European powers had colonized much of the Middle East, triggering strong responses from the peoples of the region. In this course, we will focus on various forms of resistance to British and French colonialism in the Middle East in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By taking an in-depth look at Greater Syria and Algeria, we will cover the following themes: similarities and differences between British and French forms of colonial rule, colonial government and bureaucracy, colonial education, mediating elites and colonial citizenship, anti-colonial thought and preparation for self-rule, as well as anti-colonial organizations, armed rebellion and decolonization. We will also look at the legacies of anti-colonial resistance through selected readings from the more contemporary period, including fiction and film.

Organization:

This class will meet in person. It will be organized into three-hour seminars.

HIST 5906A: Narrating the Self: Modern Arab Memoirs as Historical Texts
Fall 2026

Instructor: Hussam R. Ahmed

Course Description:

This graduate seminar explores modern Arab memoirs as historical texts and literary expressions of selfhood. Through autobiographical writings by Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Arab authors, the course examines how individuals narrate their lives in relation to broader historical, political, and cultural contexts. The seminar engages critically with questions of narratability, identity, religion, gender, and sexuality, analyzing how memoirs function as sources for understanding modern Arab history as well as the construction of memory and meaning. Students will interrogate the memoir as a genre, its historical value, and its role in shaping and contesting narratives of modern Arab experience.

Organization:

This class will meet in person. It will be organized into three-hour seminars.

HIST 3516A: The Wilsonian Moment
Fall 2026

Instructor: Hussam R. Ahmed

Course Description: 

This course explores how the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War reshaped the modern Middle East. It examines how ideas such as Woodrow Wilson’s advocacy of self‑determination, the creation of the League of Nations, and international diplomacy drew the map of the Middle East as we know it today. Structured around key case studies, such as the British Mandates for Iraq and Palestine, the course introduces students to the primary sources available for analyzing the characteristics, local responses and consequences of these major transformations. Students will learn how to locate, categorize, and critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of these sources in order to construct coherent historical arguments and persuasive interpretations of the past.

Organization:

This class will meet in person. Our time will be split between lectures and in-class discussions.

HIST 3908B: Playing History

Fall 2026
 
Professor Pamela J. Walker
 
In this course, we will study history by playing games.
 
For many decades, university professors, politicians and parents have lamented that university students seem more interested in having fun than studying.  In 1913, a Harvard professor lamented that his students “could not be much stimulated by any inducements a teacher could suggest.” Reacting to the Past (RTTP) takes a different approach to university studies and makes subversive play integral to a historical study. It makes studying history fun, serious fun. Students who enjoy theatre, debating, public speaking, role playing games, board games, sports, and problem solving will have opportunity to use those talents in this course.
 
RTTP draws students into the past, promotes engagement with big ideas, and develops intellectual and academic skills. Reacting roles, unlike those in a play, do not have a fixed script or outcome. Students will be obliged to adhere to the philosophical and intellectual beliefs of the historical figures they have been assigned to play and they must devise their own means of expressing those ideas persuasively, in papers, speeches, or other public presentations. Students must also pursue a course of action they think will help them win the game. Students will collaborate and compete with others. They will work to understand historical documents and to develop their response to the central problems of the game. Together they may develop ideas for debates, engage in skullduggery, or plot to sabotage their opponents. After the game, the professor will organize a debrief session to consider what students learned and how the historical events differed from the way the game unfolded.
 
We will play two games and students will play historical roles in both games that will involve research, writing, giving speeches, and debating. You will have some choice of role you will play and different roles allow for different ways to participate in the game. You will have to purchase a game book for each game and other course materials will be posted on Brightspace. The games both ask questions about Christianity, religious change, and the relationship between religion and politics in modern European history.
 
We will play:
Ending the Troubles: Religion, Nationalism, and the Search for Peace and Democracy in Northern Ireland 1997-98
https://reactingconsortium.org/games/troubles1997
 
Henry VIII and the Reformation Parliament
https://reactingconsortium.org/games/henryviii
 
Students will be required to purchase paper copies of the game book.
 
Students will be graded on their engagement with class discussions of the assigned reading, participation in the game which includes speaking, writing, research, collaboration, and planning, and on the quality and depth of their written work. There are no exams in this course.
 

HIST 3809A:

Historical Representation

Winter 2027

Description:  This course offers a roadmap for students to explore and think about historical representation as culture, politics, and commercialization.  Topics include: museums; monuments and memorials; commemorative festivals and pageants; exhibitions and world’s fairs; historical tourism; theatre, television, and film.  While the histories represented in these forms stretches back to ancient Rome and Greece, we shall be more focused on histories of historical representation from the late 1800s to the present day.   

Class Format: In-person for one weekly three-hour class that will combine lecture, workshops,  and discussions about assigned course materials.

Assessment (Tentative):

Attendance and In-Class Activities – 10%

Online, Asynchronous Quizzes – 50%

Assignment – 20%

Final Exam – 20%

Text:  All course readings, viewings, and assigned materials will be provided electronically through the course website and the library catalogue.

Questions? Please email me at: john.walsh@carleton.ca

Fall 2026

HIST 2811

Professor John C. Walsh

Introduction: Public history is one of the most rapidly growing fields of historical research and professional practice. Public history deals with the ways in which history is created and presented in the public arena. This includes sites like museums, monuments, exhibitions, historic sites, and archives, but also forms such as graphic novels, video games, live performances, and a smorgasbord of digital histories. The ubiquity of public history in our culture also means public history work and careers are being established in a wide range of places, in both the public and private sectors. Indeed, this is why in the last few years Carleton has added an undergraduate public history concentration to allow students to add some value to their degrees whether History Majors or Minors.

Class Format: Most weeks will be done in-person once / week in a three-hour block. (Some class time will be devoted to asynchronous site visits to avoid any conflicts with classes right before or after ours.) In-class time will involve a range of activities: lectures, discussion, screenings, public history experiments, and visits from public historians to talk about their professional careers and pathways.

Aims and Goals: There are two fundamental goals for this course. First, it seeks to introduce students to public history as both a practice and a career.  Second, it will immerse students in doing public history by pursuing a “public history of place” project from the first weeks of the course until the end.

Assessment (tentative):  

Attendance: 10%

Online, Asynchronous Quizzes: 40%

Public History of Place Project:  50% (this is broken down into components over the term)

Text:  The core text will be Thomas Cauvin, Public History: A Textbook of Practice 2nd Edition (Routledge, 2022) – please note that you will need the 2^nd edition and copies of this will be ordered through the university bookstore, but students can find the book in a wide range of retailers. A copy of the textbook will also be placed on reserve at the library. All other required readings, screenings, or listenings will be made available electronically through the course website.

Questions? Please email me at: john.walsh@carleton.ca

History 3510A

Indigenous Peoples and Canada 

Fall 2026

Instructor: Professor Michel Hogue

Description:  This course examines the historical experiences of Indigenous peoples and their encounters with colonialism.  It examines key sites of interactions between Indigenous peoples—First Nations, Metis, and Inuit—and their would-be colonizers in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canada. While we survey the contours of Indigenous lives and histories during this time period and the complex histories that entangled Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, we will pause to consider the utility of colonialism as an analytical framework for understanding these interactions. What do we mean when we talk about “colonialism”? What different forms has it taken? How have Indigenous peoples shaped, accommodated, or resisted such measures? How have the processes of colonization affected both colonizer and colonized? What are the legacies of these colonial interactions? What might de-colonization look like?

Our investigations will focus in large part on the primary sources that provide glimpses into aspects of this colonial past and its legacies.  While historians typically identify such primary sources as the “building blocks” of historical interpretations, many of the sources that have been used to write the histories of Indigenous peoples were themselves the product of colonial needs to survey and control Indigenous peoples. While such collections necessarily privilege the perspectives and desires of colonizers and the very conditions of colonization, such records have also proven vital to Indigenous efforts to seek legal redress before courts and other tribunals, as well as to the efforts to revitalize cultural practices in the present. Grappling with the double-edged nature of historical sources about Indigenous peoples will necessarily mean casting a critical eye on the practice of history and its implication in the colonial pasts that historians have sought to document.

Format: This course will be delivered in a blended format. The three course hours per week will include an asynchronous, online course module (1 hour/week) and in-person discussions and hands-on activities (2 hours/week).

Evaluation: The course activities will include:

• weekly quizzes based on the required readings and course activities
• short writing assignments

If you have any questions please contact me at michel.hogue@carleton.ca

HIST 4500A:
Seminar in British History: Histories of Shopping
Fall 2026 / Winter 2027

The above image is from the Empire Marketing Board campaign in the 1930s.
Instructor: Danielle Kinsey
Course Description: While this is a seminar about modern British history (ie/ from about 1750 to the present), the theme for the course is “Histories of Shopping.”
Long has it been assumed that industrialization was the backbone of British development and that histories of production drove imperialism, militarization, and the rise of parliamentary governance in Great Britain. This course will take a step back from that assumption and investigate how consumption, distribution, marketing, and consumerism were just as much a part of the story as production. Napoleon famously characterized England as a nation of shopkeepers; this course will explore how “shopping,” or the practice of buying goods from shops, became a constitutive element of modern life and driver of economic, political, social, and cultural change in Britain and its empire.
In the Fall semester, we will read and discuss scholarship about consumerism and shopping in modern Britain. Readings will likely be about: the cotton trade, racial capitalism, museums and exhibitions, glass shopwindows, department stores, worker cooperatives, consumer boycotts, kleptomania, fashion, the advertising industry, sensationalism, shopping districts, rationing, mass culture, Cold War culture, and the neoliberal citizen-consumer. Students will be asked to think historiographically about how and why scholars made their arguments about the past in addition to learning basic narratives of what happened in the past. The Fall semester will be evaluated on discussion participation, reading responses, a historiographical analysis of a particular topic of each student’s choosing, and a midterm on the readings in that semester.
In the Winter semester, as a class we will choose a specific area or theme to focus on and students will develop an original research topic of their own. We will discuss how to: generate topics and research plans, write a proposal, find and analyze primary sources, find and analyze secondary sources, write in drafts, and craft arguments and argumentation. We will also engage in peer review and students will be asked to make an oral presentation on their research findings. The output format for the research project will probably be a formal written essay but I am open to other modes of presentation.
Class Format: This is a 1.0 credit seminar that will meet in-person once per week for three hours. All students are expected to attend every class.
Evaluation: Attendance and participation will be graded in both semesters and is mandatory. There will also be reflective assignments in both semesters in addition to the assignments already discussed in the course description. The summative paper for the Fall semester will be a historiographical essay. The Winter semester will revolve around students producing aspects of their research project in a timely manner and engaging in constructive feedback with their peers.
Prerequisites: Students should complete either HIST 3810 or 3820 before taking this class so that they have been introduced to the concepts and content of historical theory and historiographical analysis.
Required readings: Readings for this course have not yet been set. Having said that, students should be prepared to read and discuss about 120 pages of academic writing per week. This reading load will come in the form of academic journal articles, monograph chapters, and theoretical texts, some of which will be challenging.
Email the instructor if you have any questions or concerns.