Department of History

The Georgetown History Department is committed to teaching with the quality and commitment of a leading liberal arts college, and to scholarship at the level of the best international research universities. We believe that teaching and scholarship only reach distinction when they are integrated by a faculty devoted to excellence in both.

Our faculty and our curriculum are global in their sweep. We conduct scholarship and teach classes in the history of the United States, Western and Central Europe, Russia and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Islamic World, East Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Latin America and Africa. Both our teaching and our scholarship bring transnational perspectives to bear on the histories of the Atlantic World, the Pacific World, international diplomacy and cultural interactions, ethnicity and nationalism, the environment, and comparative gender relations.

We bring our commitment to international scholarship and participatory teaching to two undergraduate History majors: History in Georgetown  College and International History in the School of Foreign Service. The Department offers a Master of Arts in Global, International, and Comparative History as well as Master of Arts in Global History offered jointly with King's College London. Our Ph.D. program trains strong teaching scholars committed to understanding diverse nations and cultures in global context --- and to sharing that understanding in the classroom and in scholarly publications.

We also take a leading role in several international Masters programs: The Master of Science in Foreign Service, and the Master of Arts in German and European Studies, in Arab Studies, in Russian and East European Studies, and in Latin American Studies. Ultimately, we promote History as a way to understand how the world’s diverse peoples have moved from distinct pasts toward an ever more integrated present.

Statement of Welcome from Department Chair Aviel Roshwald

History Department Mission Statement and Learning Goals