Course Description: This course will explore the leadership, travels and adventures of some of the most visionary, influential, and interesting influencers (and villains) of history from Ancient Egypt to today. In this course, we will meet daring empresses and queens, cowboys, samurais, villainous pirates, Count Dracula, revolutionary artists, ground-breaking scientists, Everest climbers, warrior saints, interpreters of dreams and even some heroic dogs of history!

The individuals featured in this course have been selected both due to the impacts of their lives and the likelihood that their stories will interest and challenge students to think critically about challenging themes of history and leadership. We will explore the biographies of a vast range of historic peoples across the entire globe within their historic contexts. Students will be encouraged to conduct their own research and think constructively, logically and analytically about a wide range of leadership styles over time to formulate their own perspectives and critical analysis of the influence of the historic figures we explore together.

Assignments: Weekly graded research, reading, multimedia, speaking and constructive analysis assignments will be provided to students. Students will also have the opportunity to complete an extended research project on a historic figure of their choice to present to the class.

Materials: Students will provided with all proprietary slide decks, multimedia, primary and secondary texts and textbooks/resources for the duration of this course.

Units:

1 Cleopatra VII Philopator (Egypt, 69 BCE- 30 BCE) and Hatshepsut (Egypt, 1507–1458 BCE)

2 Empress Wu Zhao/Zetian/Hou (624-705, China)

3 Genghis Khan (China, 1162-1227) and Kublai Khan

4 Marco Polo (Italy, 1254 –1324)

5 Joan of Arc (France, 1412-1431)

6 Vlad III the Impaler/Vlad Dracula (Romania, 1428-1477)

7 Oda Nobunaga (Japan, 1524-1582)

8 Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (Italy, 1564-1642)

9 Blackbeard, Ching Shih, Captain Kidd, Anne Bonny and other Pirates

10 Charles Darwin (England, 1809-1882) and Albert Einstein (Germany, 1879-1955)

11 Vladimir Lenin (Russia, 1817-1924), Joseph Stalin and Karl Marx (Germany, 1818-1883)

12 Sitting Bull (1831-1890, American Native American Lakota)

13 Sigmund Freud (Germany, 1856-1939)

14 Billy the Kid (American West, 1859-1881)

15 Marie Curie (Poland, 1867-1934)

16 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (India, 1869-1948)

17 Winston Churchill (England, 1874-1965)

18 Frida Kahlo (Mexico, 1907-1954)

19 Mother Teresa (India, 1910-1997)

20 Togo (Alaska, 1913-1929) and Hachiko (Japan, 1923-1935)

21 Nelson Mandela (South Africa, 1918-2013) and Desmond Tutu (South Africa, 1913-2021)

22 Sir Edmund Hillary (New Zealand, 1919-2008) and George Mallory

23 Eva Peron “Evita” (Argentina, 1919- 1952) and Che Guevara (Argentina, 1928-1967)

24 Malcolm X (USA, 1925-1965)

25 Malala (Pakistan, 1997-) and Greta Thurnberg (Sweden, 2003-)