Join one of the top ranked history departments in the world.
With courses that cover the globe from antiquity to the fall of communism, our undergraduate and graduate programs allow you to choose a specialization from a vast selection of areas. Innovative courses include such topics as the history of money, gladiators in Roman society, and the history of animals, technology and science. Our award-winning faculty’s research areas include Indigenous and Metis History, love and death in Renaissance Italy, the world of voyageurs, the histories of Modern Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
What makes us unique:
- Our department ranks among the best in the world.
- You’ll study with award-winning professors, including Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada and Royal Historical Society.
- Our courses cover history from the ancient period to the recent past.
- Our courses focus on the thematic areas of indigeneity, culture, gender, social, political, environmental and sexuality.
- Our focus on hands-on learning, such as the training offered in placements at museums, archives and galleries for our Public History Certificate, will translate into crucial in-demand skills.
The study of history imparts critical thinking, reading, research, writing and communication skills, all of which makes us better citizens in a democratic society and a global community.
Read our Land Acknowledgment, which recognizes the unique and enduring relationship of Indigenous people and their traditional territory.
Faculty Testimonials
We have great historical resources here on campus – I love taking classes to the Map Library and the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections in our own Scott Library. There’s something wonderful about getting to handle a 300-year-old book or a handwritten medieval manuscript. Even if the book is in a language that you can’t read, you can write first-rate essays about the annotations in the margins!
— Prof. Margaret Schotte
I am a historian of Black Canada. My research and pedagogical approaches focus on amplifying the multifaceted historical experiences of African Canadians. In my courses, students have the opportunity to explore various archival collections in their study of Black life, Black voices, and Black thought in efforts to reconstruct Black experiences in the Canadian context and build skills as historians.
— Prof. Natasha Henry-Dixon
Photo credit: Archives of Ontario, Oct. 23, 2023
My research and teaching focuses on the economic and social history of Greece in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including the history of Greeks in Canada. One of the highlights of my teaching is the summer-abroad course I teach in Greece. In this course, students visit research centres, museums, and historical sites, learning about history in a way that is memorable, fun, and interactive.
— Prof. Sakis Gekas
My work centres on the social, cultural and economic impact of Roman imperial rule on its three Hispanic provinces (Lusitania, Baetica, Hispania Citerior), and I also continue to pursue research on Roman public spectacles, especially gladiators. My interest in gladiators led me to develop a 3000-level course on Spectacle and Society in Ancient Rome (HIST 3135 3.0). I am also interested in digital humanities and co-direct two open-access web-based resources: ADOPIA, a digital atlas of personal names from Roman Spain, and a digital corpus of Roman inscriptions from the colony of Augusta Emerita, the capital of Lusitania.
— Prof. Jonathan Edmondson
Photo: Prof. Edmondson discussing a Roman inscription in the Plaza Mayor in Mérida.
Studying history allows students to explore the question, "how did things come to be the way they are today?" Courses in History apply that question to a wide range of topics, from social inequality and movements for social change, to political developments and military conflict, to concerns about the environment over time. All teach the significance of context in exploring the causes and consequences of past events and developments. In this way, a degree in History will shape how you think for the rest of your life.
— Prof. Jennifer Bonnell
