The University of Virginia's Corcoran Department of History has long been one of the anchors for liberal and humane education in the College of Arts & Sciences. Members of the Department are nationally and internationally recognized for their scholarship and teaching. As scholars, the faculty specialize in a wide range of disciplines — cultural, diplomatic, economic, environmental history, history of science & technology, intellectual, legal, military, political, public history, and social history. Areas of interest span the globe from Africa, to East Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, South Asia, and the United States. As teachers, our faculty seek above all to lead students to reflect more deeply on the role historical forces and processes play in the human condition. Offering over 100 courses a year, the faculty teach introductory surveys as well as seminars and colloquia to undergraduates and graduate students. The Department's intellectual breadth is enhanced by its close relationship with the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American & African Studies, the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies (CREEES), the Classics Department, an emerging Law & History nexus between the Department and the School of Law, the Miller Center for Study of the American Presidency, and the Committee on the History of Environment, Science, and Technology (CHEST). Members of the Department are also closely involved with several interdisciplinary programs in the College of Arts & Sciences such as, American Studies, Latin American Studies, Middle-Eastern Studies, Medieval Studies Program, and Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. Others work at the convergence of humanities and digital technology, both in research and in novel approaches to historical pedagogy.
News
In a recent op-ed for the Washington Post, Professor Liz Varon explains how the removal of Confederate statues will give us a clearer view of the complex Southern past.
Since the news broke of the assassination of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse, University of Virginia scholars who focus on Haiti have been busy answering media questions about the country.
Recommended summer reading: Alan Taylor’s American Republics, Justene Hill Edwards’ Unfree Markets: The Slaves’ Economy and the Rise of Capitalism in South Carolina, and Philip Zelikow’s The Road L
Publications
Merit
The History of a Founding Ideal from the American Revolution to the Twenty-First Century
Cool Town
How Athens, Georgia Launched the Alternative Scene and Changed American Culture
For the Soul of Mankind
The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War (Chinese translation)
Taming the Unknown
A History of Algebra from Antiquity to the Early Twentieth Century
