History
College of Arts and Humanities
2115 Francis Scott Key Hall
Phone: 301-405-4265
http://history.umd.edu
As historians, we take pleasure in the difficulty of our profession. Our gaze falls upon the entire sweep of human experience, and our subject, humankind, is the most perplexing of all. Here you can learn about the world: about people and their motivations, about how small events can change so many lives. You can explore the impact of legal policies in early modern China, or the impact of the German autobahn. You can explore the canals and the people of sixteenth century Venice, and nineteenth century disputes about African colonialism. You will learn to find and sort information, to analyze documents, to weigh human motivation, to consider what we know about the worlds of the past and the human place within it. By understanding history you can also understand much more about our present, and will emerge with many relevant skills and ideas that can translate into a variety of careers. In addition to topics listed above, our faculty include specialists in the history of slavery in the U.S., environmental history and modern American filmmaking. We study and teach about the American Revolution, early modern medicine, women’s history, American legal history, Medieval Iberia, the Atlantic world, the holocaust, Habsburg Vienna, Jewish history, early and medieval Islam, Sufism, the Ottomans, the Modern Middle East and North Africa, Central Asia and Soviet Russia. You can study Ukraine and Poland in the 20th century, the early Spanish empire in Latin America, struggles over identity in the nineteenth century Caribbean, and the rise and fall of ancient Rome. Through it all we center the voices of people and the sources that allow us to know and understand the worlds in which they lived.
Professors: R. Bell, A. Cañeque, J. Greene, M. Hsu, A. Karamustafa, P. Landau, H. Lapin, R. Muncy, M. Ross, K. Rosemblatt, M. Rozenblit, P. Soergel, S. Villani, P. Wien, T. Zeller
Associate Professors: M. Baldwin (Associate Chair), E. Barkley Brown, J. Bianchini, C. Bonner, A. Borrut, H. Brewer, S. Cameron, B. Cooperman, M. Dolbilov, D. Freund, S. Giovacchini (Director of Graduate Studies), S. Hazkani, P. Kosicki, C. Lyons, Q. Mills, M. Raianu (Director of Undergraduate Studies), L. Rowland, D. Sartorius, D. Sicilia, C. Woods, T. Zhang
Assistant Professors: D. Choi, P. Chung, Z. Dorner, E. Mosely, R. Schine, J. Simmons, L. Soares
Principal Lecturers: S. Baron, H. Smead
Senior Lecturers: R. Chiles, A. Rush
Lecturer and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies: K. Keane
Research Professor: J. Taddeo (Research Prof)
Professors Emeriti: S. Brush (Distinguished University Professor Emeritus), G. Callcott (Prof Emeritus), A. Eckstein (Distinguished University Professor Emeritus), R. Friedel (Prof Emeritus), J. Gilbert (Distinguished University Professor Emeritus), D. Grimsted (Assoc Prof Emeritus), G. Gullickson (Prof Emerita), J. Henretta (Prof Emeritus), J. Herf (Distinguished University Professor Emeritus), M. Mayo (Prof Emeritus), S. Michel (Prof Emerita), A. Olson (Prof Emerita), R. Price (Prof Emeritus), W. Ridgway (Assoc Prof Emeritus), D. Sutherland (Prof Emeritus), J. Warren (Prof Emeritus), D. Williams (Prof. Emeritus), M. Zilfi (Prof Emerita)
Academic advising is available daily on a drop-in basis in the History Undergraduate Advising Office, 2131C Key Hall. Check the department website for current schedule or contact historyadvising@umd.edu for more information.
To review the academic plan for this major, go to http://arhu.umd.edu/undergraduate/advising/academicplans/.
Internships
Juniors and seniors may take up to 6 hours of credit in historically-related internships, of which three hours may be counted toward the 39 hours in history required for graduation. All internships must have a direct relationship to the work of understanding, interpreting, presenting or preserving history and/or historical evidence. Students must have both a site supervisor at the place of the internship and a history faculty mentor for their internship project. Student internships must be approved by the History Department internship coordinator. Internships are generally only open to students who have an overall GPA of 2.5 or better.
Honors Program
The purpose of the Honors Program in History is to allow promising undergraduates to develop historical and historiographical skills, in an atmosphere that guarantees personal attention and that encourages hard work and excellence. The program is a four-semester sequence, the culmination of which is a senior thesis--a major research paper written under the close supervision of a faculty mentor. There are two phases to the program: in the junior year, students are introduced to the problems of history-writing at a sophisticated level, via two seminars on problems of historiography; in the senior year they complete two supervised courses in the writing of the senior thesis.
Student Societies and Professional Organizations
History majors and other interested students are encouraged to join the History Undergraduate Association (HUA), which sponsors events such as an annual Film Festival and special seminars and activities. History majors edit and publish a web-based journal, Janus: The University of Maryland Undergraduate History Journal, which features student writing relevant to history. Janus also sponsors an annual conference where undergraduates present their research and are awarded prizes. The department also hosts the Beta-Omega chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honors society. Information on these organizations can be obtained from the History Undergraduate Office, 2131 Francis Scott Key Hall.
Scholarships and Financial Assistance
The Office of Student Financial Aid (OSFA) administers all types of federal, state and institutional financial assistance programs and, in cooperation with other university offices, participates in the awarding of scholarships to deserving students. For information, visit: http://financialaid.umd.edu.