- Sea Changes: A History of the World's Oceans

Catalog description

A survey course in global history that takes the world's oceans as its subject. Students will explore themes ranging from naval history to legal history, from environmental history to zoological history, and from the history of exploration and adventure to the history of imperialism and conquest. Students will work with primary and secondary sources and develop their analytical and writing skills as they ask questions about the field of history itself. What assumptions have historians made when they focus on nations and continents? What institutions and categories have they privileged with their focus? What have we missed because we look only at the history of land? How and why does history's narrative shift when we undertake a "sea change" in our perspectives?