Department of History

Why History at Pitt

At the Department of History at Pitt, we're not just thinking about the past: we speak to the present and future too. From strong relationships with professors and peers to transregional expertise, we prepare you to do research abroad, apply cutting-edge methods, and speak to urgent public debates.

Why History at Pitt

History Speaks


 

Keisha Blain: Violence in Minneapolis is rooted in the history of racist policing in America

Protests erupted in Minneapolis on Thursday ...

Is It Really Different This Time

Podcast: Still Marching After All These Years

Alex Finley: Women’s household labor is essential. Why isn’t it valued?

Covid-19 has exposed enduring inequality in domestic divisions of labor.

Mari Webel: Compare the flu pandemic of 1918 and COVID-19 with caution

Compare the flu pandemic of 1918 and COVID-19 with caution – the past is not a prediction

Rob Ruck Discusses Pittsburgh's Place in Negro League History

Rob Ruck Discusses Pittsburgh's Place in Negro League History

Mari Webel: Past Outbreaks Provide Lessons For Figuring Out New Coronavirus

"The way China and the rest of the world are dealing with the coronavirus outbreak may appear chaotic now.

Rob Ruck: Tropic of Football

How did American Samoa become a wellspring of football talent?  Read More >>

Listen to Rob Ruck, interviewed on WESA about his new book, Tropic of Football: The Long and Perilous Journey of Samoans to the NFL

Keisha N. Blain Awarded Best Book in African American Women’s and Gender History

Keisha N. Blain, assistant professor in the Department of History, received the 2019 Darlene Clark Hine Award from the Organization of American Historians (OAH). Read more>>

Michel Gobat's Empire by Invitation wins the Friedrich Katz Prize

Michel Gobat's Empire by Invitation: William Walker and Manifest Destiny in Central America (Harvard University Press, 2019) has won the Friedrich Katz Prize in Latin American and Caribbean History.

Documenting the History of Sport in Pittsburgh

In City of Champyinz PhD students Cory Brazile and Alex Mountain interview coaches, players, owners, and community leaders to show how the increasingly global nature of sports has remade youth sport in Pittsburgh over the last fifty years. Watch now>>

AHA Member Spotlight: Sharika Crawford

Sharika Crawford is an associate professor of history at the United States Naval Academy. She lives in Annapolis, Maryland, and has been a member since 2003.  Read more >>

Molly Warsh disentangles beauty and power in the history of pearls

Listen to Molly Warsh, interviewed about her new book, American Baroque: Pearls and the Nature of Empire, 1492-1700: a global story of labor, empire, nature, and desire. Read more>>

Pitt History student wins AHA Summer Research Blog Contes

AHA Summer Blog Contest winner Aura Jirau Arroyo describes the huge challenges and deep insights of carrying out research in Puerto Rico in the wake of the hurricane.  Read more >>

Drwenski: Let's rid ourselves of Confederate statue

Remove, destroy, and replace the "Spirit of the Confederacy" statue. Do it now, without delay or reservation. Do it now, with celebration and camaraderie. Read more >>

Mari Webel teaches popular courses at Pitt

A historian of eastern Africa, Mari Webel teaches popular courses at Pitt such as Disease and Health in Modern Africa and History of Global Health.  Read more>>