Intellectual History & History of Ideas

Intellectual history is a genre of inquiry that focuses on the role that explicitly-articulated concepts and theories, whether legal, political, religious, artistic, philosophical, or scientific, play in the thinking and action of human beings. Inside the discipline of history, the focus of attention is most often on how these concepts and theories interacted with and influenced economic, social, cultural, and political developments.  Closely related to intellectual history is the interdisciplinary subgenre of the history of ideas.  The focus of attention there is most often on investigating the formation and structure of past concepts and theories with an eye both to understanding better the ideas themselves and to illuminating unresolved issues in the present connected with those ideas.

Many members of the Corcoran Department of History work in these interrelated fields in an effort to understand what was and is most often overlooked in everyday life, namely, the hidden roots of people’s most deeply adhered to ideas and practices.

Faculty

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
Professor
434 Nau Hall
Office Hours: M/W, 1:00-2:00PM; TR, 3:00-4:00PM (subject to change); by appointment
Themes: Intellectual History & History of Ideas
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
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
White
John B. Minor Professor of Law and Professor of History
361 Law
Office Hours: N/A
Themes: Intellectual History & History of Ideas, Legal History

Graduate Student

PhD Candidate
Office Hours: Wednesdays 11:00-1:00pm, or by appointment, in Nau Hall 296
Themes: Intellectual History & History of Ideas, Political History, Transnational and Diplomatic History

Alumni