The course examines theoretical perspectives relevant to the discovery and interpreting of historical phenomena. Topics include memory; identity; trauma; narrative; practices of inference; nation-state and trans-nationality; space; and the role of normative assumptions. Likely authors include B. Anderson, Bourdieu, Brubaker, Confino, Flyvbjerg, Geertz, Ginzburg, Kuhn, LaCapra, Megill, Moyn, J. C. Scott, J. W. Scott, Sewell, Weber, White.