Haverford’s Department of History is a vibrant community of students and faculty committed to illuminating the past—with rigor, innovation, and a deep appreciation of the complex social and cultural forces underlying any single moment in time.

We welcome students with a wide range of interests, including those that span the disciplines. Their diverse perspectives and investigations—which include art, literature, music, and languages, among many other areas—are a vital part of the dynamism of the department.

Our program puts a strong emphasis on engagement with primary sources and other historical evidence, and equips students with the tools to analyze and interpret them. Our classes stress, and our accomplished faculty model, imaginative analysis rooted in fact.

Breadth and depth characterize our course of study. Majors develop a familiarity with the broad outlines of history, the range of interpretations advanced by historians, and the debates connected to the writing of history, while also cultivating an interest in—and undertaking a focused study of—a particular topic.

Students typically begin the major by completing two semesters of introductory (100-level) coursework. While courses at this level cover a range of regions, periods, and areas of study, all train students to be discerning readers of primary texts and to build persuasive arguments.

Majors then move on to 200- and 300-level courses. We require majors to select courses that span three fields. These three fields are chosen from the six defined fields (U.S., Early European, Modern European, Latin American, East Asian, and History of Science and Medicine) that we offer. Majors can also design a field to reflect their own interests. Our 200-level classes and 300-level seminars typically cover a broad range of sources and analytical approaches and emphasize research skills. As seniors, majors investigate a specific historical question and produce a Senior Thesis.