Welcome!

As of this July 2022, the USC Van Hunnick History Department has truly entered a new era. Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Elizabeth Van Hunnick, our department will be growing and our faculty and graduate students will have the resources to be still more productive as researchers and scholars. But even before our department received its new name, we were in the midst of something like a renaissance, welcoming into our community a new group of scholars from diverse backgrounds whose work spans the globe and who bring to their investigations a wide range of methodological approaches and life experiences. At a time when, due to external pressures, some institutions (legal, governmental, and otherwise) and even some scholars have chosen to ignore the realities of history and to set aside the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the Van Hunnick History Department continues to embrace these ideals and to savor the benefits of having done so.

We encourage you to visit our faculty and graduate student pages. Get to know our community. Explore our calendar of events. And feel welcomed and encouraged to take our classes, attend our lectures, participate in our conferences, and investigate the complex histories that have shaped our world and that give us glimpses of better worlds that might yet be.

Paul Lerner, Department Chair