Department of History, University of Oxford

Department of History, University of Oxford
Name	Department of History, University of Oxford
Established	1920s
Location	Oxford, England

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Department of History, University of Oxford

The Department of History at the University of Oxford is a leading centre for historical teaching and research with connections to colleges such as Balliol College, Oxford, Magdalen College, Oxford, St John's College, Oxford, All Souls College, Oxford and institutions including the Bodleian Library, Ashmolean Museum, British Academy, Royal Historical Society and History Faculty Library. It is situated within a university with links to figures like Isaac Newton, William Gladstone, Thomas Hobbes, C. S. Lewis and events such as the English Reformation, English Civil War, Industrial Revolution, Napoleonic Wars and Second World War.

History

Oxford's history teaching traces back to medieval scholars associated with University of Oxford colleges such as University College, Oxford, Merton College, Oxford, Exeter College, Oxford, Christ Church, Oxford and patrons like Edward III, Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, Oliver Cromwell and scholars who engaged with texts by Herodotus, Thucydides, Tacitus, Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the department evolved alongside intellectual movements represented by historians such as Edward Gibbon, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Lord Acton, A. J. P. Taylor, R. G. Collingwood and institutional reforms linked to the Clarendon Commission and the expansion of research after the First World War and Second World War. Twentieth-century specialisms grew around studies of medieval England, early modern Europe, modern Britain, imperial history, European integration, Cold War, decolonization, Russian Revolution and American Revolution.

Research is organised through centres and projects with links to the Oxford Centre for Global History, Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research, Oxford Centre for African Studies, Wolfson College Projects, Bodleian Libraries Digital Projects and major collaborative initiatives on subjects like the Transatlantic Slave Trade, British Empire, European Union, Arab–Israeli conflict, Russian history, Chinese Revolution, Meiji Restoration, Indian independence movement and the Atlantic World. Active research grants have connected the department to archives such as the National Archives (United Kingdom), Public Record Office, Churchill Archives Centre, Imperial War Museum, British Library and international repositories like the Vatican Archives, Archives nationales (France), Bundesarchiv, Hoover Institution Archives.

Faculty and research staff include holders of professorial and tutorial positions associated with chairs and titles such as the Regius Professor of Modern History, Chichele Professor of Economic History, Beit Professorship of Commonwealth History, Professor of Medieval History, Professor of Modern British History and many tutors drawn from colleges like Keble College, Oxford, St Anne's College, Oxford, Hertford College, Oxford, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and Lincoln College, Oxford. Past and present academics have engaged with figures and topics related to Edward Gibbon, Lord Byron, Milton, Winston Churchill, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Fernand Braudel, E. P. Thompson, Norman Davies, Niall Ferguson, Margaret MacMillan and collaborative networks including the Royal Society and British Academy.

Physical and digital resources centre on the Bodleian Library, including special collections from the Bodleian Libraries, manuscripts such as the Beowulf manuscript, early printed books like Gutenberg Bible exemplars, map collections linked to the Cartography of the British Empire, and scientific holdings associated with the History of Science Museum, Ashmolean Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum. The department uses seminar rooms and lecture theatres near landmarks such as the Radcliffe Camera, Sheldonian Theatre, High Street, Oxford, Broad Street, Oxford and research computing facilities connected to Oxford University Computing Services and digital humanities tools used in projects on the Domesday Book, Pipe Rolls, Patent Rolls and digitisation collaborations with the Google Books-era initiatives and the Europeana platform.

Students participate in college tutorials and societies including the Oxford Union, History Society, University of Oxford, Balliol Historical Society, Magdalen College Historical Society, debating and reading groups that engage with primary sources from collections like the Bodleian Library, archival visits to the British Library, excursions to historical sites such as Hampton Court Palace, Tower of London, Windsor Castle, Hadrian's Wall and study abroad links with institutions like Harvard University, Yale University, Sorbonne University, University of Cambridge and exchange programmes tied to the Erasmus Programme and international conferences held at venues such as the British Academy and the Oxford Union.