History

As many of you know, on 1 July 2009 ASU’s Department of History was reborn as the Faculty of History, joining the Faculties of Philosophy and of Religious Studies in the new School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies.  Amid many changes, a good deal will remain the same.  The forty-plus historians who make up the Faculty will continue to preside over one of the largest and strongest undergraduate history programs in the country, serving around 1000 majors and covering the full range of topics, periods, and regions in world history; and will continue to oversee a vibrant graduate program, maintaining its traditional strengths in North American, European, South and East Asia, Latin American, Women’s, and Public History, and now offering certificates in Environmental History and in World & Global History.  The Faculty is proud to host Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies and the on-line discussion list H-Amindian; and will maintain its close relations with affiliated programs such as the Melikian Center for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies, and the Jewish Studies Center.

In all those respects, the Faculty will look much like the Department.  At the same time, we are also tremendously excited about the opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching and intellectual collaboration afforded by joining our new colleagues in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies.  We are at work on designing a 100-level undergraduate sequence that will take advantage of the global reach of the disciplines represented by the historians, philosophers, and scholars of religion in the School: we look forward to fruitful interaction of this kind with our new colleagues at every level of teaching and research.  We also plan to use this occasion to launch a project of review and redefinition of history education itself.  Historical awareness and understanding have always enjoyed a unique position among the humanities and social sciences.  Our goal will be to re-imagine and reassert this centrality, for the purposes of 21st-century higher education.  This is an exciting moment and opportunity for the Faculty of History.  Please join us in making – and remaking – history at ASU!