• America & The World Local, Transnational, and Global Perspectives

    In a world marked by increasing exchange between peoples, cultures and societies, History is key to understanding contemporary issues such as the future of democracy, the nature of citizenship and rights, the origins and conduct of war, the foundations of racial and ethnic conflict and tolerance, and poverty and prosperity.

    The Northeastern History Department invites you to explore this website. We welcome majors and non-majors to study a great range of subjects with a nationally and internationally acclaimed research faculty. Examples of topics we address include the American Revolution; Cities in Africa; the History of Boston and New England; the Holocaust and Comparative Genocide; the History of Espionage; the Japanese Empire; the U.S. West; Dictatorships in East Asia; European Fascism; Empires in World History; History of Gender and Sexuality; the Vietnam Wars; African American History; Russian Civilization; or the History of Science and Technology. Students work closely with faculty to develop a critical understanding of the past, and to hone their intellectual and analytical skills.

    For majors, History at Northeastern emphasizes the study of national and regional histories as well as of the global exchanges between nations, regions, and cultures. Experience in conducting original research is a hallmark of the undergraduate program. Faculty research and teaching focus on Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, Russia and the Soviet Union, the Atlantic World, the Middle East, and on the histories of race; imperialism and colonialism; violence and war; political and social movements; cultural history; women and gender; and public history. With guidance from their faculty mentors, History majors have won numerous research scholarships. In addition to University-sponsored semester abroad programs, History students regularly participate in month-long summer Dialogues of Civilization courses taught by History faculty in world cities, such as Prague, Istanbul, Accra, Beirut, Budapest, or Beijing.

    Knowledge of the past is also about building the future. History teaches crucial skills in analytical thinking, research processes, writing, oral expression, and multi-media presentation. In other words, History courses open up intellectual horizons--and impart skills for any career path. History majors have worked on Co-op in law firms, an art auction house, the State Department, the Massachusetts State House, Newton Pubilc Schools, and the State Archives among many other locations. Northeastern University History students have successfully pursued careers in law, management and administration, business, university teaching and scholarship, secondary school education, journalism, medicine, government agencies and NGOs, and in public history as film-makers, archivists, and administrators of historical sites.

    At the graduate level, the Department of History at Northeastern University offers three programs. The Ph.D. and M.A. programs focus on global approaches to historical analysis in research and teaching, and the M.A. with a concentration in Public History is geared toward students who wish to work in historical organizations. The Doctoral Program is one of few Ph.D. programs in the country that specifically emphasizes world history as a primary field of study, and is recognized for its particular strengths in gender, social, and cultural history. The American Historical Association Committee on Graduate Education cited Northeastern's World History Program as being "in the vanguard of these studies."

    The Department of History maintains strong ties to a variety of interdisciplinary programs in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, including Cinema Studies, Asian Studies, International Affairs, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Jewish Studies, and Environmental Studies. History is part of the new School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. The Department is home to the New England Quarterly the prestigious historical review of New England life and letters.