From: Randy Head, University of California - Riverside
randolph.head@ucr.edu

History of the Early Modern World at the University of California, Riverside

As part of its graduate program, the History Department at the University of California, Riverside offers a field in the history of the early modern world. With the support of over a dozen faculty members working on the early modern Americas, Europe, Africa and China, the program builds upon the rapid development of theory, method, and research results in this new discipline. For our graduate students, we offer not only access to a dynamic and interdisciplinary field of current scholarship, but also enrichment of their preparation as college teachers.

The early modern period, loosely defined as extending from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century, saw substantial growth in the links already established between earlier civilizations, including the first systematic contact between the Western and Eastern hemispheres. Characterized by expanding merchant capitalism, new divisions of labor (often forced labor) among metropolitan centers and often distant regions, and the creation of colonial empires, the period provided the preconditions for the emergence of modern industrial mass societies. At the same time, intensifying contacts and increased migration spurred major cultural changes in most of the world's regions.

More information available at our Website .

Courses

The Department offers a regular graduate colloquium that introduces students to the field, History 207, and a topical course with varying themes, History 277. In 1997-98, History 277 will be offered by Profs. Lucille Chia and Robert Patch on the history of the early modern Pacific Rim. In addition, the department offers graduate courses focusing on the history of various regions during this period, such as Early United States, Colonial Latin America, and Early Modern Europe and Russia.

Intercampus program of courses and conferences

The study of the Early Modern World at UC Riverside is part of a University of California intercampus enrichment program that focuses on the conceptualization and study of modernity as a historical phenomenon, "Modernity's Histories in Global Context." The program includes an intercampus curriculum of courses on social theory and the historical analysis of modernity, as well as a sequence of conferences linked to the programUs guiding themes.

Faculty in the Early Modern World field

Lucille Chia (Imperial China, Sung-Qing, History of Printing)
Richard Godbeer (Colonial North America, Gender and Sexuality)
Piotr Gorecki (Medieval Europe, Eastern Europe)
Randolph Head (Early Modern Europe)
Ray Kea (Africa before 1900)
Rebecca "Monte" Kugel (Native American History)
Georg Michels (Early Russia)
Robert Patch (Colonial Latin America)
Roger Ransom (Economic History)
Sharon Salinger (Colonial North America)
Charles Wetherell (Colonial North America, Demography, Family History)

(Other department members also participate in the field)

Contacts

For more information about Early Modern World history at Riverside, contact:

Randolph C. Head
Department of History
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521-0204
(909)-787-5401 x1875
E-mail: randolph.head@ucr.edu Fax: 909-787-5299

Visit the program Website for a more detailed description.

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