Welcome Message

 Welcome to the website of the History Department at New York University.  I invite you to spend a few minutes learning about our programs, the research interests and accomplishments of our faculty and students, and the many colloquia, public lectures, and other events sponsored by the department.                    

         Our world-renowned faculty has expertise in wide-ranging topics, from the political economy of the Byzantine Empire to the environmental policies of the late-twentieth-century United States. Our interests are distributed across a broad array of subfields, including but not limited to social, cultural, intellectual, political, and legal history. The department actively supports and encourages innovation.  While also training students in conventionally defined fields of history, we are nationally and internationally recognized as a center for cutting-edge research in transnational and comparative history.                      

         The growing number of undergraduate majors is one indication of the talent and dedication of our faculty as teachers; the professional success of our graduate students is another. Students are led by example to combine analytical sophistication with careful, original archival research. We also encourage students to devise individual programs of study that cross traditional boundaries. Undergraduates have opportunities to pursue research and to publish work in The Historian, our undergraduate journal.                    

          New York City is an exciting place to do research.  The NYU history community benefits from its close proximity to the rich libraries and specialized archives of the New York metropolitan area, while the NYU libraries provide an excellent research base for our programs. There are frequent talks by distinguished visitors, and conversations from classes and public lectures tend to spill over into hallways, faculty offices, and local cafés.  Look through these pages to learn more.  If you have questions, I hope you will follow up by contacting our staff and / or arranging a visit.                                                                                      

Joanna Waley-Cohen                                                                                   

Chair, Department of History  

New York University