Modern U.S. History

The US History program offers a comprehensive program in U.S. history since 1830, with faculty strengths in histories of race and ethnicity, medicine, sexuality, sports, labor, social policy, and empire, as well as social, cultural, gender, regional (Midwest, South, and far West), urban, environmental, and transnational histories. In the course of their studies, graduate students become familiar with a variety of research methods and analytical approaches, not only within their main field but also comparatively, because all students are required to take some coursework outside their main geographic area. The program provides close and sustained supervision of graduate students in acquiring undergraduate teaching experience. ma3

Graduate students are encouraged to take advantage of the resources of the University available in a variety of centers, programs, lecture series, and colloquia. The Department of African American Studies, the Department of Gender and Women's Studies, the Department of Latina/Latino Studies, the Department of Asian American Studies, and the Center for Global Studies are among the units that offer excellent opportunities for interdisciplinary training and introduction to scholars in related disciplines. U.S. history graduate students interested in cultural studies have often supplemented their training in the history department through involvement in joint seminars offered with the Department of Anthropology and the programs of the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory and the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities.

The University Library, the third largest research library in the United States, has outstanding collections in modern U.S. history. It is also a leader in promoting access to digitized newspapers, books, periodicals, and archives.

Core Faculty

Ikuko Asaka (Ph.D. Wisconsin-Madison, 2010) African American Diaspora and Transnational History; Race, Intimacy, and Empire; Gender and Sexuality; U.S. in the World to 1877

Marsha E. Barrett. (Ph.D. Rutgers University). Political history, African American history, policy history

Adrian Burgos, Jr. (Ph.D. Michigan, 2000) U.S. Latino history, Sport History, Urban History, Immigration

Sundiata Cha-Jua (Ph.D. UIUC, 1993) Histories of African American Resistance and Community Building; Radical Black Intellectual Traditions; Culturally Relevant Pedagogies.

Augusto Espiritu (Ph.D. UCLA, 2000) Asian American Intellectuals, Transnationalism, post-Colonialism, Race and Gender, 1898 and American Empire

Daniel A. Gilbert (Ph.D., Yale, 2008): modern U.S. labor history; mass culture; sports

Kristin Hoganson (Ph.D. Yale, 1995) United States in world context, cultures of U.S. imperialism, globalization.

Rana Hogarth (Ph.D. Yale, 2012) Science, Technology and Medicine; Race and Ethnicity; Colonial North America and Early US to 1830

Erik McDuffie (Ph.D. NYU, 2003) African American Studies

Robert Morrissey (Ph.D. Yale, 2006) Early America, Atlantic World, Borderlands History, Environmental History

Kevin Mumford (Ph.D., Stanford University, 1993), Cultural and Intellectual; African American, Urban History, and Legal and Policy History.

Leslie Reagan (Ph.D. Wisconsin-Madison, 1991) 20th-century U.S. cultural and social history, documentary film, memory, public health, gender, sexuality, disabilities, U.S.-Vietnam War.

Affiliated Faculty

James Anderson (Ph.D. UIUC, 1973) Educational Policy Studies

Trish Loughran (Ph.D. Chicago, 2000) English

Some research and teaching clusters in the modern U.S. field

History of Labor (See also Comparative Labor): Kathryn Oberdeck, Daniel A. Gilbert

History of Technology, Medicine, Science, and Public Health

Rana Hogarth (Ph.D. Yale, 2012) Science, Technology and Medicine; Race and Ethnicity; Colonial North America and Early US to 1830

Leslie Reagan (Ph.D. Wisconsin-Madison, 1991) U.S. medicine and public health, history of women and gender

Cultural and Intellectual History and the History of Popular Culture

Adrian Burgos, Jr. (Ph.D. Michigan, 2000) U.S. Latino history, Sport History, Urban History, Immigration

Sundiata Cha-Jua (Ph.D. UIUC, 1993) Histories of African American Resistance and Community Building; Radical Black Intellectual Traditions; Culturally Relevant Pedagogies

Augusto Espiritu (Ph.D. UCLA, 2000) Asian American Intellectuals, Transnationalism, post-Colonialism, Race and Gender, 1898 and American Empire

Kristin Hoganson (Ph.D. Yale, 1995) United States in world context, cultures of U.S. imperialism, globalization

Kevin Mumford (Ph.D., Stanford University, 1993), Cultural and Intellectual; African American and Urban History

Kathryn Oberdeck (Ph.D. Yale, 1991) U.S. 19th and 20th century intellectual and cultural history

Leslie Reagan (Ph.D. Wisconsin-Madison, 1991) 20th-century U.S. cultural and social history, documentary film, memory, public health, gender, sexuality, disabilities, U.S.-Vietnam War.

War and Society, Social Policy, and Political History

Marsha E. Barrett. (Ph.D. Rutgers University). Political history, African American history, policy history

Sundiata Cha-Jua (Ph.D. UIUC, 1993) Histories of African American Resistance and Community Building; Radical Black Intellectual Traditions; Culturally Relevant Pedagogies

Kristin Hoganson (Ph.D. Yale, 1995) United States in world context, cultures of U.S. imperialism, globalization

Leslie Reagan (Ph.D. Wisconsin-Madison, 1991) U.S. medicine and public health, history of women and gender

Core Faculty

Affiliated Faculty

Some research and teaching clusters in the modern U.S. field

Race, Class, and Ethnicity

Women's and Gender History

Cultural and Intellectual History and the History of Popular Culture

Histories of the Midwest, South and Far West

Environmental History

United States in World Context

History of Labor (See also Comparative Labor): Kathryn Oberdeck, Daniel A. Gilbert

History of Technology, Medicine, Science, and Public Health

Cultural and Intellectual History and the History of Popular Culture

War and Society, Social Policy, and Political History