News & Views
To understand how ideas about racial difference took root in American history, Makiki Reuvers, a Ph.D. candidate in history, examines 17th-century encounters between British colonists and Native Americans.
“History is not just a set of facts and figures,” says Makiki Reuvers, but also the narratives that we tell.Traveling Black’ - Mia Bay’s new book explores the intertwined history of travel segregation and African American struggles for freedom of movement.
“American identity has long been defined by mobility and the freedom of the open road, but African Americans have never fully shared in that freedom,” historianMade by History - Alex Royt: The Gamestop bubble is an age-old financial craze with a modern twist.
The Reddit-fueled rally that surged the stock price of video game retailer GameStop this weekInterview: Sophia Rosenfeld, PhD.The author of "Democracy and Truth: A Short History" responds to the moment
Sophia Rosenfeld, PhD, is a historian specializing in European and American intellectual and cultural history, with a special emphasis on the Enlightenment and the legacy of the 18th century for modern democracy.Research seminar (HIST245, “Petrosylvania: Reckoning with Fossil Fuel”) led by Prof. Jared Farmer looks at Pennsylvania’s—and Penn’s—role in the fossil fuel economy and, by extension, climate change
Research seminar (HIST245, “Petrosylvania: Reckoning with Fossil Fuel”) led by Prof.Tina A. Irvine receives two dissertation honors
Tina A. Irvine (Ph.D., 2019), received two honors for her dissertation, "Reclaiming Appalachia: Mountain Reform and the Preservation of White Citizenship, 1890–1929." She won the Melvin E. Bradford Prize from St.Amy Gutman (President UPenn) and Wendel Pritchett (Provost UPenn) - Statement regarding the assault on the U.S. Capitol
Nothing is more foundational to American democracy than respect for the peaceful transfer of power.Place-making and Mythmaking-Penn Today
The School of Arts & Sciences’ Bethany Wiggin and Jared Farmer discuss American history, tensions surrounding the idea of place and ancestral belonging, and storytelling and displacement in This Land is My/Our/Their Land, a virtual Penn Lightbulb Cafe.Latino Voters and Lessons from the 2020 Election
Political scientist Michael Jones-Correa, historian Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, and demographer Emilio Parrado share their thoughts on the election results and what both parties might take away from looking at how Latinos voted.
Welcome to the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania. Over thirty historians in the standing faculty with a broad range of research specialties advance our understanding of the past.
Upcoming Events
Russian History and Culture Workshop (Virtual)
Peter Holquist (History, Penn)
The 1899 Hague Conference and the ‘Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land’: A European Story
23rd Annual Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Lecture in Judaic Studies
Carlo Ginzburg in conversation with Francesca Trivellato (…
The Penn & Slavery Project teaches us that no colony, state, or well-funded university was buffered from slavery’s reach. Penn’s story is a national story, and one of great importance to our ongoing efforts to come to terms with our nations’s history of slavery.
Featured Students
John Mullan
John is a double-major in History and Arabic and Islamic Studies.
Carson Eckhard
Carson didn’t come to Penn set on being a History Major. Yet her freshman year she enrolled in “The American South” and there wrote a paper about Southern U.S. universities and slavery.
Archana Upadhyay
I’m a senior from Chicago majoring in World History. I transferred to Penn as a sophomore from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.
