Welcome to the Department of History
In 1969, when the College of Humanities and Social Sciences admitted its first freshman class, the Department of History entered a new era as a coeducational degree-granting unit. Until then, the small numbers of history majors in the school were women in the Margaret Morrison Carnegie College, formerly the Margaret Morrison Carnegie School for Women. From its inception, the Department committed itself to excellent teaching as well as research, as indicated by its pioneering role in the nationwide spread of the Doctor of Arts program in history from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s.The Department of History, part of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, offers three undergraduate majors and a Ph.D. program. The undergraduate majors are Anthropology and History, History and Policy, and Social and Cultural history. The Ph.D. program is based on five thematic clusters of faculty strength: African American and African diaspora; culture and power; gender and family; labor and politics; and science, technology, and environment. These clusters, which cut across national and temporal boundaries, form the basis for a shared curriculum.
In line with the larger mission of the College and University, the Department emphasizes "excellence and innovation" in research, teaching, and service to the University, the profession, and the world beyond academe. More concretely, however, the Department promotes a broad humanistic education and the internationalization of learning; command of basic research skills, precision in writing, and facility in oral communication; interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate programs; an intellectual climate that nurtures and rewards both individual and collaborative scholarship; and a commitment to diversity in the recruitment, mentoring, and retention of faculty, students, and staff.
The History faculty includes 22 full-time tenure-track members; four regularly employed adjunct faculty members; and another half dozen or so temporary faculty members. Despite its relatively small size, the full-time faculty is comprised of a substantial mix of men and women, junior and senior scholars, and members of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups (particularly African Americans). Our research covers the major geographical areas of the globe, but focuses on a cluster of topics in social and cultural history, anthropology, and policy studies.