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.
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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
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 »
Bill Sharman publishes essay on refugees and...
Bill Sharman recently published an essay in Zeitgeschichte-Online entitled "Refugee Refusals: Human Rights and Humanitarianism since 1948.” The essay is part of an edited... read more about Bill Sharman publishes essay on refugees and human rights »
Rob Franco publishes article in the most recent...
PhD candidate, Rob Franco published his first article, "Todos/as Somos 41: The Dance of the Forty-One from Homosexual Reappropriation to Transgender Representation in Mexico, 1945... read more about Rob Franco publishes article in the most recent issue of the Journal of the History of Sexuality »
Anne Frior Scott has died at 97
Pioneering historian Anne Firor Scott, who helped establish the field of women’s history and taught at Duke for three decades, has died. She was 97. Read more in Duke Today. read more about Anne Frior Scott has died at 97 »
Nicole Barnes receives 2019 Intellectual...
A key goal of Together Duke is to invest in faculty as scholars and leaders of the university’s intellectual communities. To foster collaboration around new and emerging areas of... read more about Nicole Barnes receives 2019 Intellectual Community Planning Grant »
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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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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Health and Healing in Africa
HISTORY 205Health and Healing in Africa. This course focuses on the ways in which African people have conceived of wellness and health. We will explore the diverse history of healing mechanisms that African people have employed, ranging from...
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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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Crime and the City from Dickens to The Wire
HISTORY 313Crime and the City from Dickens to The Wire. Compares representation of crime and the city in two key "texts": Charles Dickens's “Oliver Twist” and the HBO television series, “The Wire.” Juxtaposes the social and political contexts to...
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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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Making Modern America:The United States from 1898...
HISTORY 342Transformations in society, politics, foreign relations, and arts and literature between Spanish-American War and World War II. Course pays particular attention to domestic politics in the Progressive Era; the Great Migration and the “...
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The Modern Regulatory State
HISTORY 365DThe Modern Regulatory State. Interdisciplinary inquiry into the origins/evolution of modern regulatory institutions in Western Europe and North America, along with the more recent rise of global regulatory bodies. Examines conceptual...
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Women, Gender, and Sexuality in U.S. History
HISTORY 374Women, Gender, and Sexuality in U.S. History. CCI, CZ, EI, SS, W Major questions relating to women and women's place in society over the course of U.S. history, broadly defined, from the colonial period to the present: How did different...
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Slavery and Capitalism: The Political Economy of...
HISTORY 390S.03This course traces the emergence of slavery as a mode of production in the 16th century and its relationship to the rise of modern or industrial capitalism in the nineteenth century United States and broader Atlantic world economy. The...
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Rethinking Care Economies
HISTORY 590S.01This course explores the economic nature of caring — including not only dependents and households but also communities, workplaces, and environments. By taking an interdisciplinary, transnational approach to thinking about care labors...
People
Professor of History
My research and writing explores the historical intersections among law, business, politics, and policy in the modern United States, with a... read more »
Associate Professor of History
My research focuses on the long history of human trafficking and its relationship to the evolution of racial ideology, humanitarian intervention... read more »
Associate Professor of History
Grounded primarily in Chinese history, and secondarily in Indian history, I am excited by the intellectual challenges of writing and teaching... read more »
