We offer graduate training leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. in a wide range of fields, including Early America, Modern America, African-American, Colonial and Modern Latin America, Military, Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Modern Europe, British and British Empire, South Asia, Imperial and Soviet Russia, Traditional and Modern China, Modern Japan, Africa, History of Medicine, and History of Science and Technology.
Upcoming Events
Mon
21
Oct
Diasporic Legacies and Black Feminist Sonic Visualities
4:30 PM @ East Duke Parlors
About Us
Duke’s History Department — among the top programs in the country — regard the creation of knowledge as one of the fundamental missions of a research university. Our world-renowned faculty, who work closely with our students and collaborate with colleagues across disciplines, are at the cutting edge of research in their fields as they address society’s greatest challenges. And our graduate and undergraduate academic programs — designed to help students critically think about the world around them — successfully prepare students for a wide range of careers.
Latest News
Gray F. Kidd heading to Summer School in Critical...
Ph.D. candidate Gray F. Kidd will participate and present his research at the 2019 edition of the Summer School in Critical Theory at the University of Bologna, Italy. This year’s... read more about Gray F. Kidd heading to Summer School in Critical Theory at the University of Bologna »
History graduate receives 2019 Distinguished...
Jane De Hart (’58, Ph.D.’67 History), receives the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award from Duke University Graduate School. read more about History graduate receives 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award »
Farren Yero awarded Mellon/ACLS Dissertation...
Farren Yero has been awarded a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship for her project "Laboratories of Consent: Vaccine Science in the Spanish Atlantic World, 1779-1840... read more about Farren Yero awarded Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship »
Thavolia Glymph elected into the Society of...
Thavolia Glymph has been elected to membership in the Society of American Historians in recognition of the literary and scholarly distinction of her historical writing. "The ... read more about Thavolia Glymph elected into the Society of American Historians »
Adriane Lentz-Smith selected as a 2019...
Adriane Lentz-Smith has been selected as a 2019 Distinguished Alumna of the Duke University Talent Identification Program. Duke TIP’s mission is to recognize academically talented... read more about Adriane Lentz-Smith selected as a 2019 Distinguished Alumna of Duke TIP »
2019 Anne Firor Scott Award Winners
The following students are this year's recipients of the Anne Frior Scott Award. This award is given to help undergraduate and graduate students engaged in research in women's... read more about 2019 Anne Firor Scott Award Winners »
MacLean's "Democracy in Chains"...
Nancy MacLeans recent book, "Democracy in Chains", was referenced in a recent op-ed in the New York Times. read more about MacLean's "Democracy in Chains" referenced in NY Times »
Anne Firor Scott Award 2019
The Anne Firor Scott Award is given to help students (undergraduates planning to take the History Senior Honors Seminar and graduates working on seminar projects or dissertations... read more about Anne Firor Scott Award 2019 »
Laura Edwards featured in The Tobin Project...
The Tobin Project featured Laura Edwards, a convener on their History of American Democracy Project, in their recent news letter. In the piece, she discusses her new history... read more about Laura Edwards featured in The Tobin Project newsletter »
Academics
Graduate Program
Undergraduate Program
We offer a Bachelor of Arts major where students can focus their studies in two ways: Thematic Concentrations to explore contemporary issue and themes from historical perspectives, and Geographic Concentrations to explore issues present in specific parts of the globe. A minor is also available.
Featured Courses
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Gender and Slavery in the Americas
HISTORY 213SAtlantic slave systems were gendered systems. Across lines of nation and empire, African-descended women and their reproductive labor were crucial to the formation of New World slave systems and the racial ideology that underwrote them....
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Intro to Global History
HISTORY 101Explore problems in the history of globalization. Learn how contemporary problems and opportunities of globalization reflect long-term processes marked by patterns, interruptions, and continuities even within radical change. Asia, Europe...
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Introduction to Contemporary Latin America
HISTORY 121Introduction to Contemporary Latin America. Interdisciplinary introduction to the peoples, cultures, and burning issues of contemporary Latin America and the Caribbean. Required course for students seeking the certificate in Latin...
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China And The Silk Roads
HISTORY 135Introduces the rich and diverse world of trade, religions, and cultures that connected the two ends of the Eurasian world. Starts with survey of Han and Roman trade contacts, and Chinese connections with India via Buddhism, focusing on...
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Gateway Seminar: The Global Sixties: Race,...
HISTORY 160SThe 1960s in global context, focusing particularly on Europe, Latin America, and the United States. The rise of mass movements dedicated to racial, economic, and sexual justice, against the backdrop of Cold War and decolonization. The...
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PUBLISHING & MKTG POP FICTION: Book...
HISTORY 248SA case study of the US romance fiction industry and its global reach. The romance novel is the most popular form of fiction in the world. Its industry is powered by women, produces a product consumed by women, and exports to global...
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Latin American Wars of Independence
HISTORY 264This course covers the conspiracies, uprisings, and wars that led to the independence of Haiti and the Latin American colonies of Spain and Portugal between 1780 and the 1898 withdrawal of Spain from Cuba. It focuses on the key military...
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Colonial Latin America
HISTORY 326Course explores cultures of indigenous peoples before the Age of European exploration, and it takes up European conquest and its effects on the Amerindian peoples. Students will study Latin American history from the development of the...
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RACISM AND AMERICAN PSYCHIATRY
HISTORY 390S.02Lunatic asylums in the US South offer a fertile context to explore the impact of white settler colonialism on the development of psychiatry in the United States. This haunting affects us today, when ninety percent of psychiatric beds...
People
Associate Professor in the Department of History
Anna Krylova is Associate Professor of Modern Russian History at Duke University. She works on twentieth-century Russia and the challenges posed... read more »
Professor in History
Thavolia Glymph, professor of history and law, studies the U.S. South with a focus on nineteenth century social history. She has published... read more »
Professor in the Department of History
The relationships between gender, sexuality, and colonialism have intrigued me since I began my first book on Maya sexuality. I recently... read more »
