Frontier History

4 credits · Undergraduate

This course offers a broad survey of the frontier in human history. From Hadrian's Wall and the Roman limites, to the American West in the 19th c., to contemporary Chinese jurisdictional claims in the South China Sea, borders and frontiers are universal phenomena. We will thus look at multiple times and places from multiple different perspectives. Topics will include territorialization as a historical process, borderland societies and regimes over time, legal pluralism, imperial expansion, non-state space, the ecology of the frontier, and the art and poetry of the frontier. The course will include lectures, in-class discussions, and student presentations.