UNDERGRADUATE COURSES
Courses Offered in 2025-2026 (Tentative) | Timetable (To be announced)
| 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 1 | Course Title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|
| HIST1016 | The Modern World   | Pavel Krejci |
| HIST1023 | Modern East Asia | Ghassan Moazzin |
| Semester 2 | Course Title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|
| HIST1017 | Modern Hong Kong | Bobby Tam |
| HIST1021 | Introduction 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 1 | Course Title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|
| HIST2031 | History through Film | Crystal Kwok |
| HIST2127 | Qing China in the World | William R. Kelson |
| HIST2142 | The German Empire, 1871-1918 | Bert Becker |
| HIST2178 | Trials of History: The courtroom from historical perspective | Alastair McClure |
| HIST2203 | The Philippines and the Asia-Pacific World | Claudia Montero |
| HIST2214 | Death and the Dead in Modern History, 1800-2000 | Bobby Tam |
| HIST2215 | Global Environmental History: From Columbus to the Climate Crisis | Devika Shankar |
| HIST2218 | Medieval and Early Modern Korea | Javier Cha |
| Semester 2 | Course Title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|
| HIST2016 | The United States Since 1900 | Staci Ford |
| HIST2091 | The British Empire | John Carroll |
| HIST2107 | The Second World War in Asia and the Pacific, 1931-1952 | Charles Schencking |
| HIST2144 | Second World War in the West | Pavel Krejci |
| HIST2147 | Germany’s Weimar Republic, 1918-1933 | Bert Becker |
| HIST2154 | American Capitalism in the Long Nineteenth Century | Otis Edwards |
| HIST2158 | Women in Hong Kong History: Private Lives and Public Voices | Alison So |
| HIST2161 | Making Race | Matthew Wong Foreman |
| HIST2181 | A Sea of Stuff: Commerce and Colonialism in the Indian Ocean | Devika Shankar |
| HIST2202 | Christianity in Asia | Tim Yung |
| HIST2207 | Printer, Typesetter, Reader, Scribe: A Global History of Books | Sarah Bramao-Ramos |
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 1 | Course Title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|
| HIST2070 | Stories of self: History through autobiography | Staci Ford |
| HIST2211 | Nasty women: Gender, sexuality, and race in early America | Christine Walker |
| HIST2212 | Performing History | Crystal Kwok |
| HIST3075 | Directed Reading | History Staff |
| HIST3076 | Tourism and History | John Carroll |
| Semester 2 | Course Title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|
| HIST2118 | Chinese and Americans: A cultural and international history | Guoqi Xu |
| HIST2217 | Modern Transformations: Nature and Technology in Asian History | Devika Shankar |
| HIST3075 | Directed Reading | History Staff |
| HIST3077 | Gandhi: A global history | Alastair McClure |
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 1 | Course Title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|
| HIST4015 | The theory and practice of history | Christine Walker |
| HIST4023 | History Research Project* | History Staff |
| HIST4033 | Museum and History | John Carroll |
| HIST4028 | History without borders: Special field project ** | David Pomfret |
| HIST4037 | Automating the Past: Artificial Intelligence and the Historian’s Craft | Javier Cha |
| Semester 2 | Course Title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|
| HIST4023 | History Research Project* | History Staff |
| HIST4028 | History without borders: Special field project ** | David Pomfret |
| HIST4035 | History applied: Internship in historical studies | David Pomfret |
| HIST4036 | World War III: A History | Charles Schencking |
| Whole Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| HIST4017 | Dissertation Elective* | History Staff |
Common Core Courses
| Semester 2 | Course Title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|
| CCAI9026 | Programmed to Love: Reimagining Gender, Sexuality and Intimacy in the Age of AI | Alison So |
| CCGL9070 | The Birth of the City and the Shaping of Societies | Samuel Chen |
| CCGL9077 | Education as Solution?: Debating Education Round the Globe | Alison So |
| CCHU9043 | Rethinking Women: The Big Debates | Carol Tsang |
| CCHU5088 | We are Family: Myths, Realities and the Future of an Idea | Carol Tsang |
| CCCH9032 | Sports and Chinese Society | Guoqi Xu |
- Download 2018-19 / 2019-20 / 2020-21 / 2021-22 / 2022-23 / 2023-24 course lists
- SOH Guidelines on the Use of Inclusive Language in Student Work
- Download the 24-25 History Syllabus