About Us
History tells us who we are, where we come from, and how we got here. It teaches us not only about our own place and time but also about other societies, cultures, countries, and peoples around the globe. By illuminating the past, the study of history informs how we respond to the present and how we think about the future.
Understanding the past lies at the core of what it means to be informed, engaged citizens of our communities, our nations, and the world.
Students in Brock’s History Department learn how people in the past lived and worked, how they formed families and created governments, how they established – and resisted – cultural and social norms and traditions, and much more.
We offer an exciting array of courses that introduce students to broad time periods and regions (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America) and more specialized areas of study, such as the history of science, Indigenous history, women’s and gender history, digital history, and the history of human rights. Our first-year offerings are specially designed to highlight how studying the past relates to everyday life today.
Our lecture courses include small-group seminars that invite students to engage closely with readings, work with classmates, and get to know instructors. In many courses, students are responsible for organizing and leading group discussions. Advanced History majors study specialized topics in depth in a close-knit seminar setting.
Studying History at Brock imparts skills that are useful for many career path, such as the ability to read and write critically, conduct research, analyze evidence, develop and effectively support arguments, respectfully exchange ideas in conversation with others, and recognize and reconcile differing points of view.
The Department hosts an active undergraduate History society, a journal that showcases undergraduate research, an annual Masonic Studies lecture, and many other initiatives that foster a welcoming community of learning. Through our Co-op program and other experiential opportunities, students acquire the tools needed to put classroom learning into practice.
In our Masters program, graduate students pursue meaningful research and participate actively in a community of scholars. The scholarship of our award-winning faculty reflects a collective commitment to community engagement, collaboration across academic disciplines and national borders, and innovative approaches to historical research.
