UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

Courses Offered in 2024-2025 | Timetable

First Year Courses
Second to Fourth Year Survey Courses
Second to Fourth Year Seminar Courses
Capstone Experience Courses
Survey and Seminar Courses offered by other departments
Common Core Courses
Asian history courses are indicated with the icons  and Western history ones the icons
On Reference, Footnotes and Plagiarism

YEAR 1 COURSES

Semester 1Course TitleInstructor
HIST1016The Modern World  Sarah Bramao-Ramos
HIST1017Modern Hong KongReynold Tsang
Semester 2Course TitleInstructor
HIST1021Introduction to Modern Legal History  Alastair McClure

YEAR 2-4 COURSES

In their second to fourth years students may take all their courses in history, or they may combine some history courses with courses from the departments and programmes in the Faculty of Arts or the Faculty of Social Sciences. Different modes of learning are reflected in the structuring of the History curriculum into ‘Survey’ and ‘Seminar’ courses.

Survey Courses

Survey courses are intended to introduce the history of a geographical area or a specific period.

Semester 1Course TitleInstructor
HIST2021Nineteenth century Russia, 1800-1905 Adam Sacks
HIST2031History through Film   Staci Ford
HIST2103Russian State and Society in the 20th Century Oscar Sanchez-Sibony
HIST2125Nazi Germany, the Holocaust and the Jews Adam Sacks
HIST2150Global Capitalism: The Last 100 Years Oscar Sanchez-Sibony
HIST2179Law, empire and world history: From pirates to human rights?   Alastair McClure
HIST2202Christianity in Asia  Tim Yung
HIST2209Nineteenth-Century Colonial Hong Kong  Bobby Tam
HIST3080Historical Gaming   David Pomfret
Semester 2Course TitleInstructor
HIST2013Twentieth-century Europe, Part I: The European Civil War, 1914-1945 Pavel Krejčí
HIST2014Twentieth-century Europe, Part II: Europe divided and undivided, 1945-1991 Pavel Krejčí
HIST2091The British Empire John Carroll
HIST2107The Second World War in Asia and the Pacific, 1931-1952   Charles Schencking
HIST2136Graeco-Roman World: From Homer to Augustus Peter Cobb
HIST2188Making of Modern South Asia   Devika Shankar
HIST2208The Silk Roads   Francesco Calzolaio

Seminar Courses

Seminar courses involve more advanced study of special topics in history and a higher level of training in the use of primary documents or historiography.

Semester 1Course TitleInstructor
HIST2070Stories of self: History through autobiography  Staci Ford
HIST3029Transnational History: A New Perspective on the Past Devika Shankar
HIST3075Directed Reading   History Staff
HIST3076Tourism and History  John Carroll
Semester 2Course TitleInstructor
HIST2053The Cold War Oscar Sanchez-Sibony
HIST2118Chinese and Americans: A cultural and international history Guoqi Xu
HIST2186Death and Destruction from Above   Charles Schencking
HIST2212Performing History in the 20th and 21st Centuries Crystal Kwok
HIST2213Witchcraft, Magic and the Devil in Early Modern Europe and America Christine Walker
HIST3075Directed Reading   History Staff
HIST3083Intellectual History of Early Modern East Asia Javier Cha

Capstone Experience Courses

*For final year students who wish to take HIST4017 “Dissertation Elective” or HIST4023 “History Research Project”, please reach out to potential supervisors and seek their agreement to supervise your research project. After you have secured the supervisor’s agreement, please write to history@hku.hk to initiate the approval process.

**HIST4028 “History without Borders: Special Field Project” is by invitation only.

Semester 1Course TitleInstructor
HIST4023History Research Project*History Staff
HIST4024Writing Hong Kong HistoryTim Yung
HIST4028History without borders: Special field project **David Pomfret
Semester 2Course TitleInstructor
HIST4015The theory and practice of historyChristine Walker
HIST4023History Research Project*History Staff
HIST4028History without borders: Special field project **David Pomfret
HIST4035History applied: Internship in historical studiesAlison So
Whole Year
HIST4017Dissertation Elective*History Staff

Common Core Courses

Semester 1Course TitleInstructor
CCGL9066Music and Global Politics: From Beethoven to Beyonce and BeyondAdam Sacks
CCHU9002Battles for Bodies: The Birth of Surveillance SocietyAlison So
CCCH5054Mothering China: From the Womb to the NationCarol Tsang
CCCH9061Herstory in Motion: Chinese Womanhood through the LensAlison So
CCHU9071Man Up: Masculinities in the MakingCarol Tsang
Semester 2Course TitleInstructor
CCGL9070The Birth of the City and the Shaping of SocietiesSamuel Chen
CCGL9077Education as Solution?: Debating Education Round the GlobeAlison So
CCHU9043Rethinking Women: The Big Debates Carol Tsang
CCHU5088We are Family: Myths, Realities and the Future of an IdeaCarol Tsang
CCCH9032Sports and Chinese SocietyGuoqi Xu