The course is divided in two modules of 24 hours each. The first part provides a general introduction to World History. The second part is single-subject and deals with slave trades, diasporas and migrations in global perspective from 1400 to 1900.
Further readings and bibliographical suggestions will be distributed during the course. In addition, students can consult the following books:
FIRST MODULE
1) Charles H. Parker, Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)
2) Christopher A. Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914: Global Connections and Comparisons (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004)
SECOND MODULE
3) Patrick Manning, ed., Slave Trades, 1500-1800: Globalization of Forced Labour (Aldershot: Variorum, 1996)
4) Francesca Trivellato, The Familiarity of Strangers: The Sephardic Diaspora, Livorno and Cross-Cultural Trade in the Early Modern Period (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2009)
5) Patrick Manning (with Tiffany Trimmer), Migration in World History, 2nd ed. (London; New York: Routledge, 2013)
Further suggestions
1) Mekuria Bulchia, The Making of the Oromo Diaspora: A Historical Sociology of Forced Migration (Minneapolis: Kirk House, 2002)
2) Emma Christopher, Cassandra Pybus and Marcus Rediker, eds., Many Middle Passages: Forced Migration and the Making of the Modern World (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007)
3) Mercedes Garcia-Arenal, Gerard A. Wiegers, eds., The Expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain: A Mediterranean Diaspora (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2014)
4) Jonathan I. Israel, Diasporas within a Diaspora: Jews, Crypto-Jews and the World Maritime Empires, 1540-1740 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2002)
5) Sudesh Mishra, Diaspora Criticism (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006)
6) Anthony Reid, ed., The Chinese Diaspora in the Pacific (Aldershot: Ahsgate Variorum, 2008)
7) Ronald Segal, Islams Black Slaves: the Other Black Diaspora (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001)
8) Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert, A Nation upon the Ocean Sea: Portugal’s Atlantic Diaspora and the Crisis of the Spanish empire, 1492-1640 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006)
9) John Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997)
10) Demetres Tsiobas, ed., Greek Diaspora and Migration since 1700: Society, Politics and Culture, Farnham, Ashgate, 2009
Learning Objectives
Advanced knowledge of the main historical processes on a world scale from 1400 to 1900, with special attention to free and unfree mobility.
Prerequisites
Good general knowledge of early modern and modern history.
Teaching Methods
Lectures and classroom discussions, also on the basis of weekly readings.
Further information
Students who attend the class can substitute the study of a major book in World History with a seminar paper, whose topic they must agree with the professor before the end of the course. Papers are due at least ten days before the oral exam. The evaluation will be part of the final mark (40%).
Type of Assessment
Students who attend the class must pass an oral examination about the general content of the course (40%) and major book in World History (40%). Evaluation of active participation in classroom discussion will be part of the final mark (20%).
Students must read one of the following volumes in view of the oral exam:
1) Charles H. Parker, Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)
2) Christopher A. Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914: Global Connections and Comparisons (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004)
The study of the book can be substituted with a 2500-word seminar paper on a specific topic to agree with the professor (see Further Information).
Students who do not attend the course must pass an oral examination on Charles H. Parker, Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010) and Christopher A. Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914: Global Connections and Comparisons (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004).
Course program
Title: Mobility in World History: Slave Trade, Diasporas and Migrations (ca. 1450-1900)
This class provides a non-Eurocentric overview of the historical backgrounds of the main polities and their international relations in today's globalized world.
The first module presents a general introduction to big issues in world history from 1400 to 1900 ca., including methodology and main trends, convergences and divergences.
In the second part students will tackle an up-to-date discussion of historiography and case studies relating to human mobility, taking into consideration slave trades, diasporas and migrations on a global scale roughly in the same period.
Weekly readings (a scientific article or a book chapter) will be discussed in classroom.