About
The Department of History at the University of Maryland embraces the diversity of the human past with a global vision and a variety of methods of inquiry.
Our fifty faculty form a community of accomplished scholars whose specialties examine cultures across the Americas, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe and whose chronologies stretch from antiquity to the late modern. Maryland’s professors also explore the history of the natural sciences, the environment, and the economy. Both our undergraduate and graduate students consequently benefit from a curriculum enriched by the many questions our faculty pose of the past.
The University of Maryland has awarded the PhD in History since 1937, making ours a graduate program with a distinguished past and an exciting present. Today our program in Global Interaction and Exchange allows graduate students to explore the ways in which far-flung parts of the globe are entangled in unexpected ways. Others specialize in the history of the United States, or in other world cultures, or they pursue thematic specializations. Both our undergraduate and graduate programs profit from our enviable location. Perched on the border of the nation’s capital, Maryland’s History program is able to provide students with unparalleled opportunities for internships and training in public history.
History students reap the benefits of a truly international community firmly rooted in the metropolitan region. Undergraduates regularly conduct research in local archives supervised by our faculty. The History Undergraduate Association fosters community among the several hundred students who choose the department as their major, while the Department’s Honors Program provides a challenging degree option for highly motivated students.
History’s faculty and students are united in the conviction that studying the past trains the mind to confront today’s challenges and deepens understanding of the variety of human experience. Explore our website and you are sure to be impressed by what you discover about our program.
Department Chair
Ahmet Karamustafa
Professor and Department Chair, History
Professor of History, Roshan Institute for Persian Studies, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Senior Advisor to PersDig@UMD , Roshan Institute for Persian Studies
3107A Taliaferro Hall
College Park
MD,
20742
Associate Chair
Melinda Baldwin
Associate Professor, History
Associate Department Chair, History
2128 Taliaferro Hall
College Park
MD,
20742
Director of Graduate Studies
Saverio Giovacchini
Professor, History
Director of Graduate Studies, History
Affiliate Associate Research Professor, American Studies
School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Mircea Raianu
Associate Professor, History
Director of Undergraduate Studies, History
2136 Taliaferro Hall
College Park
MD,
20742