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| Cornell University Department of History | |
|---|---|
| Name | Cornell University Department of History |
| Established | 1868 |
| Type | Academic department |
| Parent | Cornell University |
| Location | Ithaca, New York |
Cornell University Department of History is an academic department within Cornell University located in Ithaca, New York, offering undergraduate and graduate training in historical research and teaching. The department is situated alongside institutions such as the College of Arts and Sciences, the Cornell Law School, and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, and engages with regional partners including the New York State Historical Association and the Smithsonian Institution. Faculty and students study topics ranging from ancient Rome to the Cold War, interacting with collections like the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library.
The department traces roots to the founding of Cornell University and early faculty appointments that paralleled developments at Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, and University of Pennsylvania. Over decades the department expanded in response to intellectual movements exemplified by scholars associated with Annales School, Chartist movement, Progressive Era, and the postwar transformations linked to the Marshall Plan and the United Nations. Institutional milestones intersect with national events such as the Civil War, the Spanish–American War, the Great Depression, and the Vietnam War, while curricular changes corresponded to comparative initiatives at Oxford University, Cambridge University, and the Sorbonne.
Cornell History offers undergraduate majors and minors, graduate programs leading to the Ph.D., and joint-degree options with the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, the College of Arts and Sciences, and interdisciplinary concentrations affiliated with centers like the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. Students pursue fields including classical studies tied to Homer, medieval studies engaging with Charlemagne and the Crusades, early modern work on figures like Elizabeth I and events such as the Thirty Years' War, and modern topics spanning French Revolution, Industrial Revolution, Russian Revolution, World War I, and World War II. Graduate training involves dissertation work on themes involving comparative analysis akin to scholarship on Tokugawa Japan, Ming dynasty, Ottoman Empire, Mughal Empire, and modern nation-states exemplified by United States, China, India, and Germany.
Faculty have included specialists in areas connected to luminaries and events such as Herodotus, Thucydides, Augustus, Medieval Europe, Niccolò Machiavelli, Isaac Newton, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Sigmund Freud, V. I. Lenin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and scholars whose research engages archives like the National Archives and Records Administration and institutions like the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians. Visiting professors and fellows often arrive from institutions such as Princeton University, Stanford University, University of Chicago, London School of Economics, and the National University of Singapore. Awards held by faculty include prizes associated with the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, the National Humanities Medal, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies.
The department collaborates with interdisciplinary centers including the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, the Cornell Institute for European Studies, the Koret-Taube Task Force, and initiatives linked to the Newberry Library, the British Library, and the Bodleian Library. Project themes have ranged across comparative imperial studies addressing the British Empire, Spanish Empire, Portuguese Empire, and Russian Empire; transatlantic slavery and abolition connected to the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Haitian Revolution; and global cold war studies involving the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Korean War, and the Soviet Union. Grants and collaborations have involved foundations such as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Faculty and affiliates publish monographs and articles with presses and journals including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, University of California Press, Harvard University Press, American Historical Review, Journal of Modern History, Past & Present, Journal of American History, and field journals addressing topics like American Civil War, Reformation, and Enlightenment. The department sponsors lecture series and occasional working papers that circulate among networks tied to the American Antiquarian Society, the Royal Historical Society, and the International Medieval Society.
Undergraduates and graduates participate in student organizations such as history clubs modeled on societies like the Phi Beta Kappa, area-specific groups focused on Latin America, East Asia, Middle East, and Africa, and interdisciplinary student initiatives connected to the Cornell Graduate Student Union and the Cornell International Affairs Society. Students engage in internships at institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and pursue study abroad programs with partners like Sciences Po, University of Tokyo, and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
The department draws on collections housed at Cornell’s Olin Library, the Carl A. Kroch Library, the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, and area repositories like the Tompkins County Public Library and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. Special collections include manuscripts and materials comparable to holdings at the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, and the British Museum, supporting research on subjects from ancient Greece to the Cold War. Faculty and students also utilize digital archives and databases linked to institutions such as JSTOR, ProQuest, and the Digital Public Library of America.