Cultural & Social History

All human beings live in and through culture: the languages, traditions, and practices which create meaning in the world.  Humans are likewise creatures of social order: the roles, institutions, and divisions of labor which define how we relate to one another.  Together, cultural and social history explore the significance of what gets overlooked in state-centered and elitist narratives of the past.  For cultural and social historians, evidence comes in many forms, from the “high” culture of novels, paintings, and operas, to the “popular” culture of rock music and comic books, to the material artifacts of work and domesticity, to the traces of lived experience recorded in letters and diaries.  Challenging the authority of canons and hierarchies, cultural and social historians ask how ideas circulated in various contexts and how ordinary people made sense of the world around them.  Drawing on the methods of literary criticism, cultural studies, and anthropology, this field of history reads the past as a text, reminding us that the intricacy and complexity we associate with great works of art are also the province of everyday life.

Faculty

Zhang
Professor
256 Nau Hall
Office Hours: Tuesdays: 10-11am; Thursdays, 2:00-3:00pm
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Material Culture, Political History, Women, Gender, & Sexuality
Joshua M. White
Associate Professor, Director, Distinguished Majors Program
Nau 355
Office Hours: Tuesday, 3-5 PM and by appointment
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Empire & Colonialism, History of Slavery, Legal History, Transnational and Diplomatic History
Wellmon
Associate Professor of German
New Cabell Hall, Room 223
Office Hours: Wednesdays 3:15 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. and by appointment
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Intellectual History & History of Ideas
Penny
Professor of History, William R Kenan, Jr Professor in American Studies
233 Nau Hall
Office Hours: W, 2:00-4:00PM
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Empire & Colonialism, Transnational and Diplomatic History
Kirt von Daacke
Assistant Dean, Associate Professor of History
202 Monroe Hall
Office Hours: By appointment
Themes: Cultural and Social History, History of Slavery, Race & Ethnicity
Shulman
Research Professor of History, Editor of The Dolley Madison Digital Edition
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Political History, Women, Gender, & Sexuality
Associate Professor, Director, Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Nau 385
Office Hours: Mondays, 12:30-2:30PM
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Genocide & Violence, Labor History
Parshall
Commonwealth Professor Emerita of History and Mathematics
Nau 456 and Kerchof 213
Office Hours: By appointment
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Intellectual History & History of Ideas, Science, Medicine, & Technology
Louis Nelson
Professor of Architectural History, Associate Dean in the School of Architecture
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Empire & Colonialism, History of Slavery, Material Culture, Race & Ethnicity
Mason
Associate Professor; Co-Director, Holsinger Portrait Project
353 Nau
Office Hours: T, 2:00PM-4:00PM; W, 10:30AM-12:30PM; and by appointment
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Empire & Colonialism, History of Slavery, Race & Ethnicity
Klubock
Professor and Chair
Nau Hall 281
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:00-2:00PM, and by appointment.
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Environmental History, Labor History, Race & Ethnicity, Women, Gender, & Sexuality
John L Nau, III, Professor in History of American Civil War, Director, John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History
497 Nau Hall
Office Hours: Mondays, 1:30-3:00PM
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Military & War History, Women, Gender, & Sexuality
Horne
Associate Professor of French
317A Cabell Hall
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Empire & Colonialism, Labor History, Material Culture, Political History
Harold
Edward Stettinius Professor of History
Nau 291
Office Hours: T, 3:00-5:00PM
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Labor History
Hale
Commonwealth Professor of American Studies and History
283 Nau Hall
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 2:00-3:30pm (in person) and by appointment on Zoom
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Digital Humanities, Race & Ethnicity, Women, Gender, & Sexuality
Goluboff
Arnold H. Leon Professor of Law and Dean of the School of Law, Professor of History
Law WB 389
Office Hours: F 12:00 - 1:30
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Labor History, Legal History, Race & Ethnicity
Carlson
Professor
A220 Thornton Hall
Office Hours: Thurs. 12:30-2:00 (434) 924-4306 (434) 924-4306
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Economic History & History of Capitalism, Science, Medicine, & Technology
Associate Professor of German and History, Director, European Studies Program, Director, Center for German Studies
Office Hours: T, 10:00AM-12:00PM
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Environmental History, Genocide & Violence, Intellectual History & History of Ideas, Jewish History, Political History, Race & Ethnicity, Transnational and Diplomatic History

Graduate Student

Stefan
Office Hours: Wednesday 1:30-3:30 (virtual) and by appointment
Themes: Cultural and Social History, Legal History, Military & War History, Political History