Everything and Everyone has a History
Chelsey Smith
Chelsey Smith joins the Department of History as a public humanities post-doctoral fellow
This fall, the Department of History is excited to welcome Chelsey Smith as a public humanities post-doctoral fellow. Smith is a historian of nineteenth-century Jamaican history and her research interests include education, race, and labor in the Caribbean and Latin America.   The...
Deepasri Baul
Professor Deepasri Baul joins the Department of History at the University of Illinois
This fall, the Department of History is excited to welcome Deepasri Baul to our faculty as an assistant professor. Professor Baul is a historian of modern South Asia, specializing in urban history, property regimes, and religious...
Grace Maria Eberhardt
Graduate student spotlight: How STEM student Grace Maria Eberhardt became a historian
Graduate student Grace Maria Eberhardt didn’t think she would become a historian when she began as an undergraduate student at the University of Puget Sound. She initially wanted to study STEM, but after taking an African American studies class, she became more interested in ethnic studies and the...
Angela Diaz
Professor Angela Diaz joins the Department of History at the University of Illinois
This fall, the Department of History is excited to welcome Angela Diaz to our faculty as an associate professor. Professor Diaz is a Civil War era southern historian. Her research interests include the Gulf South, U.S. territorial...
Marsha Barrett
Professor Marsha Barrett receives national media attention for new book
Professor Marsha Barrett has received national media attention for her new book Nelson Rockefeller’s Dilemma: The Fight to Save Moderate Republicanism. Barrett has been...
image of books
History professors make inroads on scholarship and research in the time between academic years
Researching is like putting together a puzzle you don’t have all the pieces for, according to history professor Anna Whittington. Sometimes you don’t even know what the puzzle...

Chart Your Own Path

Our program empowers you to explore your interests and passions within history and gives you the flexibility to pair the major with advanced language study, internships, study abroad experiences, undergraduate research, and community engagement.  

History Major History Minor

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Black Music

From African spirituals to Beyoncé, you’ll answer “What really is Black music?”

HIST 104

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The President and the People

A chronological survey of the US presidency that examines individual presidents and the times in which they lived.

HIST 293

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A History of Everything: The Big Bang to Big Data

Explore different scales of time and place human history in larger geological, ecological, and cosmic contexts.

HIST 103

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Constructing Race in America

Explores the complex and intricate pursuit of multiracial and multicultural democracy.

HIST 281

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Madness and Modern Society

Learn how the diagnosis and treatment of "madness" in its many forms has been shaped through the interaction of social, political, economic, and cultural factors from roughly 1750 to the 1990s.

HIST 236

Conduct Your Own Research

Research is embedded in the history curriculum with an emphasis on transforming students from consumers of history to critical producers of it. All students have access to the resources of the second largest university library in the country. 

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Lisa Nikodem

Alumni Spotlight: Lisa Nikodem (2008)

Lisa Nikodem is the director of organizing at Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action.