Department of History

Students in professor Thomas Fleischman's class didn't write a research paper at the end of their class about the environmental history of the Erie Canal. Instead, they produced a podcast series, and Fleischman is already planning for a second season.

Chicago and Delhi. Rome and Rochester. The students in the 100-level course “The City: Contested Spaces” take a virtual tour of them all, while pondering an overarching question—can people’s lives be reshaped by redesigning urban spaces?

The Future(s) of Microhistory symposium brings prominent historians to Rochester to discuss one of the most influential methodologies in their field in the last few decades.

100 years later, historian Matt Lenoe argues that the Russian Revolution was not a workers' revolt, but a movement against predatory imperialism.

Spring forward. Fall back. On two Sundays each year, as we move in and out of Daylight Saving Time, time itself suddenly starts to seem a little arbitrary. Every discipline in the University has its own way of constructing and thinking about time.

The assistant professor of history is known for having students reenact battle scenes, conduct “rocket” tests, and write propaganda campaigns to try to bring the era of the Korean War to life.

Historian Derek Peterson '93 has been awarded one of this year's John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowships—commonly known as the “genius grant”—for his work in reshaping the understanding of African colonialism and nationalism.

“I want our center to touch the life of every University of Rochester undergraduate,” says Joan Shelley Rubin, who was installed as the inaugural Ani and Mark Gabrellian Director of the Humanities Center in May.

To mark Jefferson’s birthday, Thomas Slaughter's class is in for a rare treat: a historically accurate lunch, culled from the actual Monticello cuisine and prepared according to recipes taken directly from Thomas Jefferson’s Cookbook and Dining at Monticello.

A “virtual” re-creation of early settlements on Smith's Island, Bermuda, offers professor Michael Jarvis and his students immersive experience of the site they are working to excavate.