Latin American History at Columbia University
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Welcome to Latin American history at Columbia!
The Department of History at Columbia University is a world renowned place to study Latin American history. Our award-winning faculty work on a diversity of periods and regions, and their courses and publications engage multiple methodological approaches. Our Department of History is home to a strong community of historians of Latin America, and the Institute of Latin American Studies integrates also visiting professors, research scholars, graduate and undergraduate students interested in history. The New York City Workshop of Latin American History is a space to share research and lively discussions with faculty and students in other universities in the area.
Columbia has been one of the most important centers of graduate education in history since modern Ph.D. programs began in America over a century ago. Recipients of our degrees hold distinguished positions in virtually every major university in the United States and abroad. Our program offers a broad education in most areas of historical scholarship and attempts to train students for a discipline and a profession in the midst of considerable change; our program not only assists students in acquiring the knowledge and skills essential to becoming contributing scholars, but also helps them to become effective teachers and to exist comfortably within a demanding and complicated professional world.
The Department of History is also deeply committed to undergraduate education. Many faculty members teach in the College Core, and all faculty members teach undergraduate lectures and seminars in history. Most faculty members regularly sponsor senior theses and independent studies. Our undergraduate curriculum is rich and deep, covering all areas of the world and most periods of written history. Courses explore various methodologies, a wide range of ways of writing history, and different approaches to the past. We emphasize no one approach to history and no single interpretive model. Our principal goals in the undergraduate classroom are to develop the intellectual breadth and deepen the analytical skills of our students.
