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| History Department, University of Massachusetts | |
|---|---|
| Name | History Department, University of Massachusetts |
| Parent institution | University of Massachusetts Amherst |
| Established | 19th century |
| Type | Public university department |
| Location | Amherst, Massachusetts, United States |
History Department, University of Massachusetts
The History Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is a major academic unit within the University of Massachusetts Amherst offering undergraduate and graduate study in multiple geographical and thematic fields. The department connects research and teaching across areas such as American history, French Revolution, Industrial Revolution, World War I, and World War II, engaging with sources, archives, and scholarly debates tied to institutions like the Library of Congress, Massachusetts Historical Society, and Smithsonian Institution. Faculty and students collaborate on projects related to figures and events including Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Jefferson, Winston Churchill, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Mahatma Gandhi.
The department provides degree programs that span regional concentrations such as New England, Latin America, East Asia, South Asia, Middle East, Western Europe, and Africa, while emphasizing periods ranging from antiquity—engaging with sources on Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Augustus—to the contemporary era shaped by events like the Cold War, Vietnam War, and Arab Spring. It maintains connections with campus-wide centers such as the Umass Amherst Commonwealth Honors College, the W.E.B. Du Bois Center, and the Morrill Land-Grant Acts legacy initiatives, hosting seminars on topics from the Treaty of Versailles to the Civil Rights Movement and the Women's suffrage campaigns led by figures like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
The department's origins trace to curricular expansions at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, paralleling developments at institutions like Harvard University, Yale University, and Columbia University. Over decades it experienced intellectual shifts influenced by historians such as Herbert Baxter Adams, Frederick Jackson Turner, Charles A. Beard, and E.P. Thompson, and by methodological turns responding to works like The Communist Manifesto discussions and debates around Postcolonialism led by scholars referencing Frantz Fanon and Edward Said. The department adapted through eras marked by the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, and the rise of social history exemplified by studies of slave trade, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age.
Undergraduate majors and minors align with graduate offerings including the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. Concentrations cover fields associated with archives and texts tied to Magna Carta, English Civil War, Glorious Revolution, Ottoman Empire, Ming dynasty, Qing dynasty, Meiji Restoration, and the Russian Revolution. Coursework addresses documentary traditions linked to the Bill of Rights, Emancipation Proclamation, and diplomatic history framed by the Treaty of Paris (1783), Congress of Vienna, and NATO. The curriculum incorporates training in historical methods, public history connected to institutions like the National Archives and Records Administration and museum studies referencing the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Faculty research spans intellectual lineages evoking scholars such as E.P. Thompson, Fernand Braudel, Michel Foucault, Eric Hobsbawm, Jacques Derrida, and Theda Skocpol. Projects investigate themes from colonial encounters like Columbus and the Age of Discovery to modern struggles such as Indian independence movement and South African apartheid involving leaders like Nelson Mandela and Jawaharlal Nehru. Grant-supported work links to funders and collaborators including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and partnerships with the Massachusetts Historical Society, American Antiquarian Society, and Library of Congress collections. Faculty publish on topics including the Spanish Civil War, Irish War of Independence, French Revolution, German reunification, and transnational movements like Pan-Africanism and Zionism.
Students engage with campus organizations and activities connected to scholarly communities including the Phi Alpha Theta history honor society, the Graduate Student Senate, and area-specific groups focusing on Latin American Studies Program, African Studies Center, and the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies. Practical training includes internships at repositories such as the Smithsonian Institution, Massachusetts State Archives, Historic Deerfield, and local museums like the Emily Dickinson Museum. Student projects often explore figures and events including Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Gloria Steinem, and Simone de Beauvoir.
Departmental resources include seminar rooms, research labs, and archival partnerships enabling access to collections related to Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and regional archives preserving materials on the Shays' Rebellion and Ethan Allen. The department works closely with the University of Massachusetts Libraries, which house primary sources tied to the American Revolution, Civil War, Progressive Era, and diplomatic records referencing the League of Nations and United Nations. Digital humanities initiatives connect to tools and platforms used in projects on GIS mapping of historical landscapes, editions of primary sources from periods like the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and collaborative exhibitions with institutions such as the Peabody Museum.
Alumni have pursued careers in academia, public history, government service, and media, contributing research on topics including the New Deal, McCarthyism, Watergate scandal, Vietnam War protests, and policy work in organizations like the United Nations, World Bank, and U.S. Department of State. Graduates have become authors and scholars citing works on Ken Burns-style documentary history, curators at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, educators in school systems influenced by the Common Core State Standards Initiative, and public intellectuals engaging debates about Civil Rights Movement legacies. The department's scholarly output includes monographs and articles that address historical moments from the Battle of Gettysburg to the Fall of the Berlin Wall, adding to collective understanding of figures like George Washington, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Theodore Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.