Our Head of Department says:
This is a vibrant, highly motivated, and outward-looking Department which boasts unparalleled expertise on the histories of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. We approach those histories by focusing on a range of topics, including culture, religion, gender, economics, law, politics, technology, and warfare.
Our historians are world-leading specialists on areas of the globe which comprise more than three-fifths of the world’s population: colleagues work on the Middle East from the era of the Crusades to the more recent past, on nineteenth- and twentieth-century China and Japan, on the formation of state and society in Africa, and on Islam from West Africa to Southeast Asia.
The History Department also prides itself in having internationally acclaimed expertise in the study of ancient Near Eastern languages, including Akkadian, Sumerian and Hittite. Courses on these are offered as part of degree programmes taught in collaboration with the School of Archaeology of University College.
Our range of programmes at BA, MA and PhD level attract growing numbers of students every year, who come to the History Department to gain access to our unique research community, and to the insights we offer on the making of the modern world.