About
George Mason University’s Department of History and Art History offers undergraduate and graduate programs in American, European, and comparative world regional history emphasizing Africa, Latin America, and Asia. It also offers undergraduate majors and minors in Art History. Many faculty members share an interest in social and cultural history, and in using a combination of verbal, visual, and technological tools in their research and teaching. Members of the department support a wide array of other programs throughout the university, such as interdisciplinary programs in Cultural Studies, Women’s Studies, Latin American Studies, Asian Studies, American Studies, African-American Studies, Classics, and Honors. In 1994, the Department established the Center for History and New Media. The Center provides support for the PhD program, and has gained an international reputation for innovatively applying new technology to the study, preservation, and teaching of history. The Center’s faculty and staff have collaborated on groundbreaking new media projects, winning national awards and major institutional support.
Located on the Fairfax, Virginia, campus of George Mason University, the Department of History and Art History takes full advantage of its location in cosmopolitan Northern Virginia close to Washington, DC. Students benefit from proximity to the Library of Congress and the region’s rich variety of historical archives, specialized research libraries, museums of the world’s art, and information technology resources.
The Department of History and Art History features a distinguished faculty. Five members of the Department have won Guggenheim awards; one was granted a MacArthur Fellowship. In addition, faculty members have received fellowships from a variety of institutions including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Fulbright Fellowship programs, the Social Science Research Council, and major international museums. And George Mason historians continue to be recognized with numerous book awards.