Overview

Research is central to the department’s mission. Faculty members produce a constant stream of books, articles, websites, and other scholarly products. Many have built national reputations as leaders in their fields. Their books and articles have received numerous awards and prizes. Faculty members have received nationally competitive fellowships from sources such as the Guggenheim Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Getty Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Education, and the Fulbright Foundation. Over the last decade, our faculty have received nine year-long research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities—more than any other single department in the country during that period. The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media is at work on several major collaborative digital projects at any given moment, and receives hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funding each year to support this work. The department is also home to the Journal of Social History, one of the top scholarly journals in the discipline. 

The faculty are committed to bringing new knowledge from their research into the classroom. Each semester the department offers over 80 different courses, at every level of instruction: introductory general education courses, upper division courses for History and Art History majors, and graduate courses for our M.A. and Ph.D. students. Courses cover every major world region and chronological period. We are one of the few departments in the country to offer training in digital humanities. Seven of our professors have received the university's highest accolade for teaching, the Teaching Excellence Award. Department members believe that through their courses students not only learn about the past but also acquire critical reading, writing, visual, and research skills that are essential for today's careers.