Our department is one of the leading centers of historical scholarship in the world. It is also a department deeply committed to undergraduate education. Teaching Columbia and Barnard undergraduates is among our faculty’s greatest privileges. Our undergraduate curriculum covers most periods and areas of the world. We emphasize no particular brand of history, no single interpretive model, and we encourage our students to experiment with a wide range of ideas. Our principal goal in the undergraduate classroom is to develop the intellectual breadth and analytical skills of our students. To that end, our courses emphasize working with both primary and secondary sources and developing acuity in critical writing.

Career Exploration and Preparation •Academic major exploration resources, such as the “What can you do with a degree in History?” tipsheet • Individual career counseling, workshops, speaker events, and online resources to help with career planning and internship/job applications, interviewing, networking, negotiations, and the decision to pursue graduate school • Industry-specific resources covering career paths, employers, professional associations, internship/job sites, and research opportunities