Undergraduate

The History Department offers forty different undergraduate courses each year. A combination of lecture classes and limited-enrollment seminars, History courses cover two thousand years of human experience in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The faculty approach these areas from a variety of disciplinary perspectives: Cultural, Economic, Environmental, Ethnic, Gender, Intellectual, Labor, Political, Social, and Urban history.

The History Department has structured its undergraduate concentration both to encourage breadth of knowledge and to allow concentrators to focus their studies on what most interests them. Concentrators must take at least one course in each of four thematic areas: Knowledge & Belief, Power & Conflict, Pre-Modern, Race & Difference. The geographical requirement of two courses (principally focused on Africa, Asia, Latin America, or the Middle East) may overlap with courses taken to fulfill the thematic requirements.

Central to the undergraduate concentration are two junior papers and the senior thesis. All newly-declared History concentrators enroll in a research seminar in the fall of their junior year that offers an introduction to the skills of historical research and writing. In stages, concentrators advance toward the writing of the 75-page senior thesis based on original historical research. The Davis Center awards the Stone / Davis Prize to rising seniors who travel to conduct archival research. In past years, the Department has supported travel to Germany, England, and South Africa, among other places.

Thesis titles in recent years include: "Beyond the Border: Monstrous Encounters on the American Frontier," "The Unprotected Public: The Pertussis Vaccine Controversy from 1982-1986," "Mothers of Empire: Power Embodied in the Divine Figures of Juno and Mary," "The Struggle for Belonging in Medieval China: Refugees in the Tang Dynasty," and "Lettres de Noblesse: The Financial and Political Ascent of the House of Orléans, 1660-1793."

Learn more about majoring in history »

Undergraduate Program Administrator

Judie Miller
Office
129 Dickinson Hall

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Yaacob Dweck
Office
228 Dickinson Hall