Welcome to the Department of History, one of the premier departments at the Catholic University of America.
I am proud to be the chair of a department that combines the rigor and award-winning faculty of a research university with the faculty-student collaboration and small class sizes of a liberal arts college. Our faculty brings passion for research into personalized classes.
We offer particular strengths in the history of medieval Europe and Islam, early modern, Renaissance, and modern Europe, the United States, and Latin America. The department’s teaching and research encompass a wide spectrum of approaches: social, political, cultural and intellectual history, the history of migration, and particular emphasis on religious history in line with our mission as a Catholic university.
The undergraduate degree emphasizes developing skills in original research and analysis, and in written and spoken communication. The program’s flexibility encourages many study abroad opportunities, including the university’s flagship Rome Center. Our location in Washington D.C. offers an exceptional range of opportunities for internships in government, museums, and libraries. Our faculty also offers one-on-one research apprenticeships.
We also offer several joint degree programs: B.A. and B.A./M.A. programs in history and secondary education; a five-year B.A./M.A. in history; a five-year B.A./M.S.L.I.S. in history and library/information science; and a six-year B.A./J.D. in history and law. We also offer multiple opportunities for area-studies minors and certificates in Latin American and Latino Studies, Medieval and Byzantine Studies, Asian Studies, Islamic World Studies, European Studies, and Irish Studies. Our alumni find careers in business, government, politics, journalism, non-profit organizations, the tech industry, teaching, public history and law. You can read some of their stories here.
On the graduate level, we offer a small, personalized program on the M.A. and Ph.D. levels in medieval, early modern, and modern European History, as well as American history. In keeping with our mission, we also offer a specialized M.A. in Late Medieval and Early Modern Religion. We also offer a joint M.A./M.S.L.I.S. with Library and Information Sciences.
The University offers competitive merit stipends and tuition waivers upon application. Our graduate students have won nationally competitive grants and fellowships and have written dissertations on a wide variety of topics. They go on to fulfilling careers teaching in high schools, colleges and universities across the country, serving in government, and working as public historians in archives and libraries.
I look forward to speaking with you or having you visit campus.
Dr. Michael C. Kimmage
Ordinary Professor and Chair