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HistoryDepartment

history.vassar.edu

The department educates students to be active historians and encourages them to engage the library’s rich collection of primary sources. Students take courses in African, Asian, European, Latin American, and United States history, as well as a course in pre-1800 history and two seminars. Student work culminates in a senior thesis incorporating analytical, writing, and research skills and often involving field work in local archives, such as the FDR Library and Museum in Hyde Park, or summer research in the US or abroad. The department also offers a correlate sequence.

Nancy Bisaha Professor of History and Director of Medieval & Renaissance Studies

BA, Rutgers University; PhD, Cornell University

Medieval History
Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Robert K. Brigham Professor of History on the Shirley Ecker Boskey Chair

BA, The College at Brockport; MA, University of Rhode Island; PhD, University of Kentucky, Lexington

US Foreign Policy
Vietnam War

Mita Choudhury Professor of History

BA, Haverford College; MA, University of North Carolina; PhD, Northwestern University

Miriam Cohen Professor of History on the Evalyn Clark Chair

AB, University of Rochester; MA, PhD, University of Michigan

History of Twentieth Century US
History of Women in the Twentieth Century US
History of American Social Reform

Rebecca Edwards Professor of History on the Eloise Ellery Chair

BA, College of William and Mary; MA, PhD, University of Virginia

19th-Century United States History
Women in the United States up to 1890
History of the American West

Maria Höhn Professor of History on the Marion Musser Lloyd '32 Chair

BA, Millersville University; PhD, University of Pennsylvania

James Merrell Professor of History on the Lucy Maynard Salmon Chair

BA, Oxford University; BA, Lawrence University; MA, PhD, Johns Hopkins University

Native American History
Early American History
Indian Experience in Colonial Times

Lydia Murdoch Professor and Chair of History

AB, Vassar College; MA, PhD, Indiana University

Modern British and Imperial History
History of Childhood
Women and Gender
Urban History
History of Emotions
History of Medicine

Leslie Scott Offutt Associate Professor of History

BA, MA, University of California, Riverside, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles

Ronald D. Patkus Associate Director of the Libraries for Special Collections and Adjunct Associate Professor of History on the Frederick Weyerhaeuser Chair

BA, Boston College; MLS, Simmons College; MA, University of Connecticut; PhD, Boston College

History of the book
History of private and fine press printing
History of the Bible

Michaela Pohl Associate Professor of History

BA, Evergreen State College; MA, PhD, Indiana University

Shelby Pumphrey Post Doctoral Fellow in History

Ismail O. D. Rashid Professor of History

BA, University of Ghana; MA, Wilfrid Laurier University; PhD, McGill University

Joshua Schreier Professor of History and Director of Independent Program

BA, University of Chicago; MA, PhD, New York University

North African History
Middle Eastern History
Jewish History
French History
Colonialism
Gender

Wayne Soon Assistant Professor of History

BA, Carleton College; MA, PhD, Princeton University

Modern Chinese History
East Asian History
History of Science, Medicine, and Technology