The Department of History is a uniquely international department on campus, distinguished by its diversity of course offerings and accomplished faculty.
Our faculty members teach and conduct research on Africa, the Caribbean, Central Asia, East Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Russia, South Asia, the United States, as well as numerous transnational and global themes.
We collectively speak and read more than a dozen foreign languages: Arabic, Classical and Modern Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Kiswahili, Latin, Persian, Portuguese, Quechua, Russian, Sanskrit, Spanish, Turkish, and Urdu, among others.
Many history faculty additionally offer sections of courses in foreign languages, including Chinese, German, Japanese, and Spanish, through the Foreign Languages Across the Curriculum (FLAC) program.
Faculty are active participants of the College’s interdisciplinary centers, including the Toor Cummings Center for International Studies in the Liberal Arts, the Center for the Critical Study of Race and Ethnicity, and the Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy.
Through their courses, faculty explore the forces of political and social power, the dynamics of statecraft for empires and nations, the history of gender and sexuality, democracy in theory and action, racism and anti-racist movements, the global origins of banking and finance, human mobility across time, cultural and countercultural movements, religious practice, networks, ideology, and institutionalization, the history of science and medicine, and numerous other themes. Members of the history department work closely with students, supervising independent research projects, senior theses and independent studies.
By studying history, students develop critical thinking skills, the ability to reason through social, cultural, and ethical problems, effective written and verbal communication, and the ability to research, evaluate, and synthesize large quantities of information. These skills enable students of history to understand the past, present, and the potential futures of the changing world around us.
History department graduates become professors and businesspeople, teachers and journalists, lawyers and doctors, work in advertising and public relations, in politics and public service, and many other careers.
