About us

Wayne State University's Department of History teaches students to think critically about the past and how it influences the present, conduct research, synthesize information and communicate complex ideas clearly and persuasively. We are a research-intensive department with a strong profile in both scholarly publishing and the public humanities.

Our faculty specialties are loosely organized into three teaching and research clusters:

Social and economic history (urban history, labor and working-class history, the history of Detroit, the history of capitalism and of work)
Gender and women's history and the history of the family (gender ideology and constructions of femininity and masculinity, women and men in the past, family patterns and ideology)
Political history (formal and social politics, state formation, foreign and domestic policy, law and legal culture, human rights)

Into each of these clusters is interwoven the history and historical construction of race and ethnicity. We also have a concentration of faculty in the history of science, medicine, environment and technology.

Our mission

In an ever more diverse and globalizing world and in concert with the university's mission, the Department of History aims to:

Maintain and develop a national and international reputation for excellence in interdisciplinary historical research and scholarship
Teach undergraduate students historical perspectives that help them better understand the past and the fundamental research, analytical, and writing skills necessary to prepare them for a wide range of careers
Prepare graduate students to succeed in a variety of career paths for which historical knowledge is relevant
Engage in service that enables the department to fulfill its research, teaching, and public missions to educate and communicate about the past

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Contact us

3094 Faculty/Administration Building (FAB)
Detroit, Michigan 48202

313-577-2525
313-577-6987 (fax)
history@wayne.edu

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