# Harvard University Department of History

The Department of History at Harvard University (also known as the Harvard History Department) is a department of history located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The school offers bachelor's degrees in history, master's degrees in history, doctorate degrees in history, and a certificate in digital history. The department ranks as one of the top history departments in the United States and the world.

## History

The Harvard History Department is one of the oldest departments focused on historical studies in the United States. As early as 1643, Harvard College required its students to allocate one hour per week to the study of history. Between the mid-1600s and the early 1800s, the subject remained a minor part of the curriculum. In 1839, the university established the McLean Professorship of Ancient and Modern History, the nation's second dedicated history professorship after Cornell University. The chair strengthened the study of history on campus as a distinct discipline worthy of financial investment. Historian, educator, and Unitarian minister, Jared Sparks, held the position between 1839 and 1849, delivering a dozen lectures before the Lowell Institute in Boston in 1842. Sparks played a role in requiring a matriculation examination in Ancient History and Geography.
By the late 1800s, Harvard paved the way for the professionalization of the study of history at the graduate level by awarding its first Doctor of Philosophy in history in 1873. In the 1880s and 1890s, the graduate program trained professional historians, teachers, and statesmen alike such Henry Cabot Lodge who, in 1876, completed his dissertation titled "The Anglo-Saxon Land Law."

## Academics

The Harvard University Department of History is home to some of the world's leading and most renowned scholars in history. The department focuses on multiple areas within history "including social life, the economy, culture, thought, and politics. Students of history study individuals, groups, communities, and nations from every imaginable perspective." The department also runs the History of Science program, which "deals with important questions about the rise and impact of science, medicine, and technology, both east and west, and at all periods, including the very recent past."
Undergraduate students can concentrate in history and receive an A.B. degree. Students are also able to take courses in joint-degree programs, including the Joint Concentration in Ancient History (Greek and Roman), the Joint Concentration in East Asian History, and the Joint Concentration in Near Eastern History.
Graduate students can work towards a M.A. or Ph.D. in history. Students may also work towards a joint J.D. / Ph.D. degree.
The department is affiliated with a number of research centers and programs at Harvard, including:
* Center for Hellenic Studies
* Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History
* Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
* Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute
* W. E. B. Du Bois Institute
* Weatherhead Center for International Affairs

## Harvard and Slavery

The Harvard and Slavery initiative was established in 2006 in order to recognize and "research the historical connections between Harvard University and slavery". The program began as Harvard and Slavery: Seeking a Forgotten History, which summarized undergraduate research linking the history of slavery to local history. According to professor of history Sven Beckert, "We want to inspire others to dig deeper into this history, but even more so we want to encourage a broader debate on what this history means for us today." A report on the findings of this research (Full Report of the Findings of History 84G) was subsequently published in 2011. They found that Harvard was supported by donations from a slave-based economy, affiliated with scholars who promoted ideas of scientific racism, and hired professors and students who owned slaves.
In 2016, then Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust and Congressman John Lewis unveiled a plaque dedicated to the memory of four enslaved people, Titus, Venus, Bilhah, and Juba, who worked at the university. Scholars described this ceremony as an important step in recognizing the historic legacy of slavery. In 2017, a memorial was built at Harvard Law School to honor "the enslaved whose labor created wealth that made possible the founding of the Harvard Law School." The next University President, Lawrence S. Bacow, announced another $5 million would be invested to continue investigating Harvard's ties to slavery, led by Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin.
In January 2025, Harvard University laid off the staff of the Harvard Slavery Remembrance Program, a team responsible for identifying the direct descendants of those enslaved by Harvard-affiliated administrators, faculty, and staff. In response, Harvard history professor Vincent Brown resigned from the initiative. In his resignation letter, he wrote that he "learned that the entire [HSRP] team had been laid off in sudden telephone calls with an office in Harvard's human resources department." According to the fired founding director of the remembrance program, Richard Cellini, the vice provost Sara Bleich had instructed him "not to find too many descendants." University officials announced that the efforts to connect with descendants will continue through a third party.

## Rankings

The Department of History is frequently cited as one of the premier institutions for the study of history. U.S. News & World Report ranks the department at #4. According to the QS World University rankings in history, Harvard has consistently ranked first among history faculties worldwide from 2020 to 2023.

## Notable faculty

* David Armitage
* Sven Beckert
* Allan M. Brandt
* Vincent Brown
* Tomiko Brown-Nagin
* Sidney Chalhoub
* Joyce Chaplin
* Lizabeth Cohen
* Emma Dench
* Peter Galison
* Drew Gilpin Faust
* Peter Gordon
* Andrew Gordon
* Annette Gordon-Reed
* Evelynn Hammonds
* Tamar Herzog
* Maya Jasanoff
* Walter Johnson
* Cemal Kafadar
* Joseph Koerner
* Ewa Lajer-Burcharth
* Jill Lepore
* Charles S. Maier
* Erez Manela
* Tiya Miles
* Naomi Oreskes
* Fredrik Logevall