At the University of Illinois study in Early Modern Europe is supported by a half-dozen faculty in History, and by a wide network of scholars in other departments. Students in this field will benefit from a regular range of thematic graduate courses with the primary faculty, and from long-standing graduate student reading groups, a faculty/graduate student colloquium, and frequent presentations by visiting scholars. We work closely with Illinois faculty specializing in Early Modern Europe from the English and foreign language departments, art history, and our area studies centers. The campus already benefits from several interdisciplinary meeting groups, including the Renaissance Seminar. No field of graduate study has more ties to other fields than Early Modern Europe. Our graduate seminars enroll students working in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, medievalists, and students of Asian, African, Latin American and U.S. history. Conversely, graduate students specializing in early modern Europe are encouraged to cross the boundaries of region, nation, periodization, discipline, and method to produce outstanding and original work in this dynamic field. 

Campus Resources

Housing more than ten million volumes, including a number of important manuscripts and early printed books, the University of Illinois Library is the third largest academic library in the nation. It is also affiliated with the Consortium of Academic Research Libraries in Illinois, and with the Newberry Library of Chicago, which boasts particularly fine collections supporting the study of medieval and early modern history.