Fields of Study
Graduate Fields of Study
The Department has a particular strength in the history of the American West and currently offers PhD training in American history. These and all other fields included here are also available as MA and MS major fields, as well as PhD minor fields.
- Asian History
- Colonialism & Imperialism
- Comparative Gender & Sexuality
- Latin American
- US History
- World History
Asian History
The field in Asian history is grounded in three areas: China, Japan, and India (South Asia.) While our faculty teaches courses covering the ancient and medieval periods, their research focuses on the history of Asia from the 18th to the 20th centuries.
The Asian history sector is particularly strong in comparative Asian colonialism, gender, legal history, modern social movements, civil society and popular culture. With a strong commitment to global, diasporic, and comparative approaches to history, the Asian history faculty offers graduate courses that enrich the study of Europe, the US, the Middle East and other areas of the world. Among the topics explored by recent graduate students are race in the British Empire in India and China, railway development and nationalism in China, and gender and consumer society in interwar Japan.
Recent Graduate Courses
The Environmental History of China; The Environmental History of India
Gender, Race, and Colonialism in Asia; Japan's Graying Society
Degrees Offered
The Asia field is available at the MA and MS levels, and as a minor field for the PhD.
Additional Resources
The study of Asian history at the University of Utah is supported by the Asia Center, the University's Title VI National Resource Center for Asian studies. Graduate students of Asian history are eligible for fellowships provided by the Asia Center's Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships. The field is also supported by a vibrant interdisciplinary community of scholars from departments across campus, including Art History, Languages and Literature, Philosophy, Communication, Sociology, Film Studies, Political Science, Economics and more.
Colonialism & Imperialism
The Department’s field in imperialism and colonialism is particularly strong in its coverage of European empires and emphasizes gender, environmental history, religion, slavery, the history of science and medicine, and Native American history (including the native peoples of Mexico and South America). Between the European Middles Ages and the contemporary post-colonial era, European expansion led to the creation and consolidation of colonial regimes around the world. Colonial authorities sought to transform societies by remolding their subjects’ own vision of themselves, their families, their lands, their sciences, and even their futures.
The pervasive and insidious influence of colonialism, its technology, and its violence was thus felt in the mind and body, marked vast landscapes, and found expression in everything from politics to material culture. Yet with colonial rule came dissent and contestation. In the face of what were often stringently hierarchical colonial regimes, women and men in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, attempted to retain control of their own lives. Their strivings meant that, as Western ideas about gender, ethnicity, science, technology, and the environment were extended overseas, they were themselves refashioned.
Recent Graduate Courses
Empire and Exploration; The Age of Colonialism and Decolonization; Science and Empire; Slavery in Atlantic History
This field is available at the MA and MS levels,
and as a minor field for the PhD.
Comparative Gender & Sexuality
This thematic field brings together faculty from diverse geographical regions and spans time from 18th century China to the 21st century United States. Department faculty have particular strengths such areas as family history, masculinity, legal history, disease and medicine, and the body.
Additional Resources
Students of gender and sexuality at the University of Utah are part of a vibrant and dynamic intellectual community and are able to build on the resources of the Division of Gender Studies.
Recent Graduate Courses
Comparative Gender History; Gender and War; Gender, Race, and Colonialism in Asia; Masculinities
Degrees Offered
This field is available at the MA and MS levels, and as a minor field for the PhD.
Latin American History
From ancient empires to modern migration, from Spanish imperial ambitions to the challenges of industrialization, Latin America is an immensely diverse region with a rich and dynamic history. The Department covers both modern and colonial Latin America with particular strengths in Mexico and Brazil.
Recent Graduate Courses
History of Brazil; Gender and Power in Latin America; Latin American Civilization to the 1820s; The Americas after Columbus
Degrees Offered
Latin American history is available as a major for the MA and MS, and as a PhD minor field
Additional Resources
The study of Latin American history at the University of Utah is supported by the Center for Latin American History, the University's Title VI National Resource Center for Latin American studies. Graduate students of Latin American history are eligible for fellowships provided by the Center for Latin American Studies' Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships. The field is also supported by a vibrant interdisciplinary community of scholars from departments across campus, including Gender Studies, Art History, Languages and Literature, Philosophy, Communication, Sociology, Film Studies, Political Science, Economics and more.
US History
The Department has an internationally recognized strength in the history of the American West. But faculty cover the full depth and breadth of US history. Located in the heart of the Mountain West, many of our students pursue research in the American West, ethnohistory, religion, Native American history, public history, gender, and environmental history.
Recent Graduate Courses
US Environmental History; Gender and the American West; Seminar in 19th and 20th Century America; The Americas After Columbus
Degrees Offered
US history is available as a major and minor field at the MA and MS levels (colonial, 19th century, and 20th century), and at the PhD level (19th century and 20th century). It is also well suited for those seeking graduate study but who can only commit to being a part-time student, and those who need courses offered in the late afternoon and evening.
Additional Resources
The University of Utah is home to the American West Center. Founded in 1964, it is dedicated to advancing the interdisciplinary study and understanding of the American West through publicly engaged scholarship. The Center’s mission is threefold: to produce scholarship that serves the needs of our community partners and clients, to produce and sponsor innovative humanities programming for public and scholarly audiences, and to train the next generation of publicly engaged scholars. The Center provides training in oral history, digital history, and other public history methods, and conducts contract research for the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and a number of American Indian Nations. In conjunction with the American West Center, the Department boasts its own reserve library for graduate students researching the American West.
World History
World history is, among other things, the study of phenomena that cross regional and national borders and which compel us to see ourselves and our world in new ways. From slavery to migration, from silver to cell phones, the study of world history challenges the conventional regional and chronological divisions that so often continue to structure historical inquiry. For this reason, world history is one of the most potentially revolutionary fields of historical study.
Recent Graduate Courses
The Korean War; Oceans in World History; Global Gender History; Global Islam
World history is available at the MA and MS levels,
and as a PhD minor field.
