Department of History

“Panta rei”--“everything flows.” This Ancient Greek phrase, used to encapsulate the thought of the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus, captures the essential insight and the fundamental challenge of the historian. How can we grasp a world that is in a constant state of flux?

Although there is little chance of our putting ourselves permanently out of business by bringing final resolution to this problem, the Georgetown Department of History brings an impressive array of resources to the endeavor. Our faculty is global in its range of skills and interests. We offer courses and fields of study in the histories of Africa, Australia, East Asia and South Asia, Early Modern and Modern Europe, Russia and Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the United States. We teach World History, Atlantic History, Pacific History, and Transregional and International history. Our faculty’s scholarship and course offerings engage with a rich variety of themes, including social and political history, cultural history, environmental history, diplomatic history, labor history, gender history, the history of ethnic politics and nationalism, the history of imperialism, and comparative history—to name just a few.

We offer entry points to these pursuits at all levels of the university experience, including our contribution to the General Education curriculum, our two undergraduate majors (for students in the College and those in the School of Foreign Service), our Master of Arts in Global, International, and Comparative History (MAGIC), and our Ph.D. program.

What makes it all work is that we bring equal dedication to our research and to our teaching, recognizing that the synergy between the two is a source of strength. We have world-class scholars who delight in teaching freshman-introductory and regional-survey courses and we make a point of dividing our largest classes—our Gen Ed offerings—into discussion sections where students can engage directly with faculty. We offer a diverse selection of upper-level undergraduate and graduate seminars that introduce small groups of students to key issues, primary and secondary sources, and research methodologies in their fields of interest. This department’s historians also actively collaborate with one another across thematic and regional sub-fields in a variety of contexts, including our faculty seminar and in the workshops and seminars offered by our Georgetown Institute for Global History. These are international forums for the presentation of cutting-edge historical research, which students at all levels are encouraged to attend and in which they regularly take part.

Finally, I might add that we strive to maintain a congenial and inviting atmosphere for work and study. Along with our staff, program directors, and my faculty colleagues, I welcome your inquiries and visits. As chair I am committed to doing everything I can to maintain and further develop this thriving environment of intellectual discovery.

Aviel Roshwald

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