Welcome to the Department of Historical and Cultural Studies!

We are a multidisciplinary unit built around the internationally recognized scholarly contributions of our faculty in the study of social and cultural history, migration and immigrant experiences, feminism, food studies, colonialism, cultural encounters, racial constructions and ideologies, and labour and the working class. Our research covers North America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean, from antiquity to the contemporary world.

We offer a variety of innovative undergraduate programs in History, Women’s and Gender Studies, Global Asia Studies, African Studies, Classics, and Religion.

While maintaining strong ties to several tri-campus graduate departments, institutes, and centres, we also foster research on campus, by closely linking our upper-level courses with our ongoing research, by involving undergraduate research assistants in our individual projects, and by sponsoring a variety of exciting lectures, workshops, conferences, and special events on campus throughout the year

Flowing from socially-engaged and leading-edge research and direct engagement with our community, the department cultivates critical civic engagement among students to prepare them for careers in teaching, government, law, social justice and NGO work, and academia. Our faculty aim broadly to enable students to develop their interests and intellectual capacities fully and provide them with the perspectives, knowledge and skills required to perform effectively in a complex economy and a multicultural society.

We stress in particular proficiency in critical thinking and expression, whether in traditional genres of public writing and speaking, or engaging multimedia digital realms. Through our programs, we encourage students to explore the diversity of and interconnections among human cultures; the development, transmission, and transformation of relations between women and men; ideas and attitudes about gender and sexuality; and the distinct histories, cultural landscapes, and social complexities of specific regions.

To learn more about our programs, projects and initiatives, please browse this site, or contact us.