World History has become a core offering in universities and colleges across the United States and increasingly in other parts of the world as well. We seek to prepare students to teach the perspective of the world. The hallmarks of the field are interregional connection and comparison, multiple points of view, and a balancing between victors’ and victims’ narratives of major human encounters. Our program especially focuses on the history of race and migration, empires and borderlands, gender, sexuality and family systems, religion, science, foods and commodities, public memory, and capitalism and its discontents.
Core Courses
Most graduate students take World History as a third field, but some take it as a second or dissertation field. The usual basic course is History 200WD, a seminar in World Historical Literature. We also offer a variety of specialized reading and research seminars. Students usually also take two courses, at least one seminar and either a second seminar or an individual readings course with a faculty member, to prepare for a PhD qualifying exam in World History.
The following faculty are in this field
Faculty
- Elena Aronova
- Anthony Barbieri-Low
- Randy Bergstrom
- Debra Blumenthal
- James F. Brooks
- Verónica Castillo-Muñoz
- Mhoze Chikowero
- Elizabeth DePalma Digeser
- Adrienne Edgar
- Mary Hancock
- John W.I. Lee
- Harold Marcuse
- Kate McDonald
- Cecilia Méndez Gastelumendi
- Stephan Miescher
- Ann Plane
- Erika Rappaport
- Luke Roberts
- Adam Sabra
- Sherene Seikaly
- Paul Spickard
- Xiaowei Zheng
Emeriti
The following courses are in this field
- History 2A World History (Prehistory to 1000 CE)
- History 2B World History (1000 CE to 1700 CE)
- History 2C World History (1700 CE to Present)
- History 101G Comparative Histories of Same-Sex Practices and Gender Variance
- History 110D Diseases in History
- History 193F Food in World History
- History 200WD Historical Literature: World
- History 201C Advanced Historical Literature: Comparative
- History 201LA Advanced Historical Literature: Latin America
- History 201G Advanced Historical Literature: Comparative Gender
- History 201RE Advanced Historical Literature: Comparative Race and Ethnicity
- History 201WD Advanced Historical Literature: World
- History 203A Seminar in Comparative History
- History 203B Seminar in Comparative History
- History 210 Topics in History and Ethnography of Religion
- History 213A Seminar in Roman History
- History 213B Seminar in Roman History
- History 293 Space, Culture, Power