Profile photo of Prof. Ian Barrow
Office
Axinn Center 339
Tel
(802) 443-2554
Email
ibarrow@middlebury.edu
Office Hours
Spring 2024: Mondays 10:15-12:15 PM, Tuesdays 10:00-11:00 AM, and by appointment.

Ian Barrow is a historian of South Asia. He has written three books, most recently a history of the East India Company. His previous work focused on colonial mapping in India and Sri Lanka. He has won grants from the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation, the Fulbright Scholar Program, the American Institute of Indian Studies, the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies, the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies, the Social Science Research Council, and the J. B. Harley Research Fellowship program. He received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago, his M.A. in history from the University of Virginia, and his B.A. in the college of letters from Wesleyan University. He has served as the history department chair, the director of the South Asian Studies program, and the director of the International Studies program. Among other projects, he is currently writing on “assassination museums” in South Asia, meaning museums and memorials that have been established to honor the memory of assassinated leaders.

Courses Taught

Course Description

Agatha Christie
In this course we will explore the work and life of Agatha Christie, one of the world’s best mystery writers. We will read several of her novels published between the 1920s and 1950s, and place them in their social and political contexts. We will learn about prevailing class, race, and gender relations in Britain, imperial archaeology in the Middle East (Christie participated in, and wrote about, digs organized by her second husband), and the impacts of the two world wars. We will also explore the craft of mystery writing by presenting our own outline to a mystery. 3 hrs. sem.

Terms Taught

Spring 2021

Requirements

CW, EUR, LIT

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Course Description

Modern South Asia
This course is an introduction to the history of South Asia. We will examine such events as the remarkable rise and fall of the Mughal empire (1526-1700s), the transformation of the once-humble English East India Company into a formidable colonial state (1700s-1858), the emergence of nationalist and anti-imperialist movements led by people such as Mahatma Gandhi and M.A. Jinnah (1858-1947), and the establishment and recent histories of the new nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Readings will include primary sources, history textbooks, historical novels, and newspaper articles. We will also watch at least one historical film. Pre-1800. 3 hrs. lect./disc.

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Fall 2022

Requirements

HIS, SOA

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Course Description

History of Pakistan
This course is a political and cultural history of Pakistan. Topics to be discussed include: the pre-independence demand for Pakistan; the partitioning of India in 1947; literary and cultural traditions; the power of the army in politics; the civil war that created Bangladesh; the wars with India; the wars in Afghanistan; the rise of Islamist parties and militant groups; the significance of the Taliban and al Qaeda; and Pakistan's relations with the US, China and India. Readings will include histories, autobiographies, novels, and newspaper and magazine accounts. Several documentary films will also be shown. 3 hrs. lect./disc.

Terms Taught

Fall 2022, Fall 2023

Requirements

CW, HIS, SOA

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Course Description

The 1940s
The 1940s saw enormous and often violent change: a global, destructive war; ongoing privation after the formal end of hostilities; the intensification of national liberation movements; the founding of the United Nations and the establishment of a new global economic order; the beginnings of the Cold War; new artistic expressions; and the reconfiguration of sexual and cultural mores. In this course we will begin with an overview of the global scale of the second world war and, using a comparative approach, focus on examples of individual suffering. We will then study the war’s effects in select countries around the world. 3 hrs. lect. (No open to students who have already taken IGST/HIST 0473.)

Terms Taught

Spring 2023, Spring 2024

Requirements

CMP, HIS

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Course Description

Science and Empire
In this course we will examine how science, medicine, and technology were used to create, manage, and justify empire. We will focus on the British empire of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although the course will include comparisons to other European empires. We will also read critiques of colonial science and medicine, and learn how anti-colonial leaders and movements adapted and engineered technologies to help their efforts. (Counts for HSMT credit.)

Terms Taught

Fall 2022

Requirements

HIS

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Course Description

The East India Company
In this course you will be introduced to the English East India Company, from the 17th-century until its dissolution in 1858. Much of our focus will be on the Company’s presence in India, and we will pay particular attention to its transformation from a maritime trading company into a territorial colonial state. We will read a number of controversial texts from the period, immerse ourselves in the worlds of Company and Indian politics, and do guided research using holdings in Middlebury’s Special Collections. Topics will include the rise of the Company as a trading concern, its aggressive competition with other European trading monopolies and South Asian kingdoms, and the importance of opium in its dealings with China. We will end with a discussion of the Indian rebellion of 1857. (Not open to students who have taken HIST 1009) Pre-1800 3 hrs. sem.

Terms Taught

Spring 2022

Requirements

AAL, HIS, SOA

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Course Description

Special research projects may only be taken during the Junior or Senior year, preferable after taking HIST 0600. Approval of department chair and project advisor is required.

Terms Taught

Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Writing History
In this course students discuss historical methods and writing strategies to create convincing historical narratives. With the approval and guidance of the professor, students complete a 20-25-page research paper based on primary and secondary sources. Students take this course in the fall of their junior year or with permission in the spring. If students are away for the entire junior year, they can take the course in the fall of their senior year. 3 hr. sem.

Terms Taught

Fall 2021

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Course Description

Senior Independent Study I
The optional History Senior Thesis is written over two terms, with the final grade applying to both terms. Approval is required. Students submit thesis proposals in the spring before the year that they choose to write their thesis. Students generally begin their thesis in the fall and complete it during winter or spring. Approval is required to begin the thesis in winter or spring. All students must attend the Thesis Writer's Workshops in fall and winter semesters and work with a faculty advisor to complete a 55-70 page paper. Please see detailed guidelines under history requirements.

Terms Taught

Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Senior Independent Study II
With departmental approval, senior history majors may write a two-term thesis under an advisor in the area of their choosing. The final grade is applied to both terms. Students must submit thesis proposals in the spring before the academic year that they choose to write their thesis. They must attend the Thesis Writers' Workshops held in the fall and winter of the academic year in which they begin the thesis. The department encourages students to write theses during the fall (0700) and winter terms (0701), but with the permission of the chair, fall/spring and winter/spring theses are also acceptable. Under exceptional circumstances, the department may approve a thesis initiated in the spring of an academic year and finished in the fall of the following year. Further information about the thesis is available from the department.

Terms Taught

Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025

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Course Description

The 1940s
The 1940s saw enormous and often violent change: a global, destructive war; ongoing privation after the formal end of hostilities; the intensification of national liberation movements; the founding of the United Nations and the establishment of a new global economic order; the beginnings of the Cold War; new artistic expressions; and the reconfiguration of sexual and cultural mores. In this course we will begin with an overview of the global scale of the second world war and, using a comparative approach, focus on examples of individual suffering. We will then study the war’s effects in select countries around the world. 3 hrs. sem.

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Fall 2021

Requirements

CMP, HIS

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Course Description

East Asian Studies Independent Project
(Approval Required)

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024

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Course Description

South Asian Studies Senior Thesis
(Approval Required)

Terms Taught

Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Independent Study
Approval Required

Terms Taught

Winter 2021, Winter 2022, Winter 2023, Winter 2024, Winter 2025

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Publications

Books:

The East India Company, 1600-1858: A Short History with Documents. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 2017.

Surveying and Mapping in Colonial Sri Lanka, 1800-1900. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Making History, Drawing Territory: British Mapping in India, c. 1756-1905. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Selected Articles:

Finding the Nation in Assassination: The Death of SWRD Bandaranaike and the Assertion of a Sinhalese Sri Lankan Identity,’ The Historian, Vol. 76, Issue 4, Winter 2014, 784-802.

‘The many meanings of the Black Hole of Calcutta,’ in Tall Tales and True: India, Historiography and British Imperial Imaginings, ed. by Kate Brittlebank, (Monash University Press, 2008) 7-18.

‘The Colonial Transition: South Asia, 1780-1840,’ co-written with Douglas E. Haynes, Modern Asian Studies (38:3, 2004), 469-478.

‘India for the Working Classes: The Maps of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,’ Modern Asian Studies (38:3, 2004), 677-702.

‘Surveying in Ceylon during the Nineteenth Century,’ Imago Mundi (55, 2003) 81-96.

‘From Hindustan to India: Naming Change in Changing Names,’ South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies (XXVI, 2003) 37-49.