QuickLinks:

Welcome

The study of history reveals the past, enlightens the present, and influences the future. Historians seek to understand how nations, societies, and individuals have lived and thought, and why they have behaved the way they did. Supplying the context that informs art, ideas and institutions, history illuminates all of human experience.

Trained to examine evidence carefully and evaluate received interpretations of the past, students construct their own understanding of historical processes, building arguments from primary sources, historians' writings, and appropriate theoretical literatures. In history you also write gripping narratives, empathize with the experience of people who have gone before and re-imagine past worlds.

Tufts History faculty promotes a diversity of approaches and ways of understanding the past. From the history of medicine, to labor and migrant histories, to transnational and global approaches, to the study of gender and sexuality, to histories of everyday life and material culture, courses challenge students to analyze historical material. The Department offers a range of courses designed to meet the needs and interests of students with differing levels of preparation. General surveys (numbered below 100) cover entire periods, fields or geographic areas, while thematic courses (numbered 100 to 189) provide more specific comparative or regional perspectives. Foundation seminars, announced each semester (numbered 90 to 97), introduce undergraduate majors to the historian's craft; research seminars (numbered 190 to 197) provide them with the opportunity to practice it through a significant research project. Students interested in specialized work are encouraged to explore independent study or to consider the option of writing a senior honors thesis.

Undergraduates may adopt history as either a major or a minor concentration. The History Graduate Program offers the M.A. Degree, with the option of earning a certificate in Museum Studies, and, in a limited number of fields, the Ph.D.

Events & Announcements:

Juan Cole
Can President Obama Avoid War with Iran?
Fares Center Event
November 18, 2009, 5:30pm
Cabot Center 702
Fletcher School
Learn More >

John Briscoe
Managing South Asia's Waters
South Asia Center Event
November 30, 2009, 5:30pm
Cabot Center 7th Floor
Learn More >

History Welcomes Two New Faculty!
Elizabeth Foster and Peniel Joseph join the Department this Fall.

David Ekbladh publishes The Great American Mission: Modernization and the Construction of an American World Order (Princeton University Press)
Learn More >

The Great American Mission traces how America's global modernization efforts during the twentieth century were a means to remake the world in its own image.

Peniel Joseph appears on WGBH's Basic Black. Live Webcast November 5, 2009, 7:30pm

Peter Winn publishes Op-Ed in The Washington Post:
"The Education of Sonia Sotomayor", July 12, 2009

Recent Events:

Gerald R. Gill Reading Room Dedication Ceremony and Alumni Reception
Date: Saturday, May 16, 2009
Time: 2:00-2:30 p.m.
Location: Africana Center
Sponsors: Africana Center and Tufts Black Alumni Association

View all news & events >