Fields & Programs

Below are the specialty fields and programs within the history department.

Early Modern World
Faculty associated with this focus reflect the newly expansive scholarship on the period between the late 15th and the late 18th centuries. No longer a geographically- bounded term, “Early Modern” refers to a conceptual and historiographical framework for understanding large, interconnected processes that function simultaneously at local, translocal, and global levels.
Latin American History
Four historians of Latin America offer opportunities for study in a variety of fields of Latin American history, both colonial and modern, with fields of specialization that include Spanish South America, Brazil, and Mexico, intellectual, legal, social, gender, and environmental history. Other faculty research fields include the history of slavery and the slave trade and the history of political violence. Graduate students take a variety of classes and directed readings with professors in Latin American history, but are also encouraged to take advantage of courses in other regions, including Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States. In addition, students are encouraged to take courses offered by an extensive Latin Americanist faculty in other departments.