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Maxwell / Department of History

  • Department of History

    Understanding history — the record of what people have thought, said, and done — is essential in understanding the world of today. Undergraduate and graduate students explore not only events of the past, but their meaning and implications for our own lives.

    For undergraduates, the department focuses on the broad relevance of history to a variety of careers — given the discipline’s emphasis on research, writing, and critical thinking. All students complete an original research project, either through the required senior research seminar or the BA with Distinction. Our active chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor society, plans field trips and hosts graduate school and career workshops. Undergraduate majors have gone on to careers in law, politics, education, journalism, business, and medicine.

    Our graduate program is characterized by close intellectual and working relationships between students and faculty. Recent graduates have received appointments on college and university faculties, in libraries and archives, and in federal and state government agencies.

    The department includes 25 current and 11 emeritus faculty members, and many have received national and international recognition for their work. The faculty includes historians of the United States, Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, and the Ancient World.  In addition to geographic and chronological focuses, our colleagues teach in fields such as political, social, military, and cultural history, with particular interest in political violence, empire, religion, law, women, gender and sexuality, labor, race and ethnicity, and intellectual history.

    The History Department is one of the oldest departments in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, having granted its first Ph.D. in 1883. 

  • History News

    Maxwell School announces 2021 faculty promotions

    The Syracuse University Board of Trustees has approved promotions for six faculty members at the Maxwell School. They are: Alan Allport, who was promoted to professor of history; Shana Kushner Gadarian, who was promoted to professor of political science; Dimitar Gueorguiev, who was promoted to associate professor of political science; Matt Huber, who was promoted to professor of geography and the environment; Guido Pezzarossi, who was promoted to associate professor of anthropology; and Junko Takeda, who was promoted to professor of history.

     

    Thompson discusses US-Vatican relationship in The Hill

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently visited with Pope Francis in what was seen as an attempt to reset relations between Washington and the Holy See following former President Trump’s administration. "In this meeting, it seems that there was far more cordiality and acknowledgment of what the U.S. and Vatican have in common," says Margaret Susan Thompson. "I think this is emblematic of Pope Francis’s entire papacy that he has always emphasized a more comprehensive view of Catholic social teaching, he is not a single-issue pope," Thompson says. "There’s plenty about the Biden administration that the pope can work with. There’s plenty of areas they can agree on." Read more in The Hill article, "Post-Trump, Biden seeks to restore US relations with Holy See."

     

    Khalil speaks to SBG about Iran's president-elect Ebrahim Raisi

    The Biden administration has made clear that reestablishing the nuclear agreement with Iran is a top concern for his administration. Experts say that may be increasingly possible following the election of hardline leader Ebrahim Raisi but any negotiations beyond the original 2015 nuclear deal could prove difficult if not impossible under Iran's new hardline president. The election of Raisi was a "mixed bag" for President Biden, says Osamah Khalil. "In the short term, it will likely enable a renewed JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). In the longer term, it will make it more difficult to have an expanded agreement or expanded relations with Iran," he says. Read more in the Sinclair Broadcast Group article, "Iran's new hardline president could complicate Biden's foreign policy agenda."

     

  • Current Procedure for Submitting Undergraduate Forms 

    All Undergraduate Forms should be submitted to Christina Cleason for review. All summer office hours and meetings with students will be conducted remotely. 

    • Undergraduate Student Forms include: major/minor declarations, transfer credit petitions, petitions to faculty, independent study forms, etc.

    Director of Undergraduate Studies:

    Professor Albrecht Diem

    Office Coordinator: 
    Christina Cleason
    315-443-2210