United States Major

The U.S. History graduate program at the University of Arizona offers students an excellent graduate experience with many opportunities to develop their research and teaching skills. The department is large enough to offer a wide variety of courses, many of which are graduate-only colloquia and seminars, and small enough to offer the individual attention that students need. Some students also gain valuable experience as teaching assistants and more advanced students also have opportunities to teach their own courses during the winter and summer sessions. Students work with faculty who specialize in a broad spectrum of topics and employ diverse methods to explore social, cultural and political history. Faculty fields include: women’s history, the history of the West, Native American history, urban history, the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands and the Southwest, Mexican American history, immigration history, labor history, environmental history, Jewish history, and the history of foreign relations. The faculty’s expertise in the history of the south complements its established reputation in the history of the west, enabling students to develop skills in regional comparisons. The department’s focus on Mexican and Latin American history complements the U.S. strengths in Mexican American, immigration, and U.S.-Mexico Borderlands history. Similarly, the University’s Women’s Studies Program and the department's program in Comparative Women's History provide additional depth to the department’s offerings in U.S. women’s history.

Resources for students:
The Department of History and the University offer a wealth of resources for students in the areas of research, training, and support. The University of Arizona Library collections are especially rich in materials related to U.S. History and the southwest. In addition to published books, the library has archival holdings and substantial microform holdings of documents, reprints, journals, and so on. Also available for research are the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy on campus, the University's Photography museum archives, and the Arizona Historical Society whose rich collection of Southwestern material has already formed the basis of many books and is located just next to the University.

Faculty:
Karen Anderson - 20th C. U.S., women, social

Juan Garcia - 20th century, Mexican American

David Gibbs -- 20th century foreign relations

Benjamin Irvin - Early American, the American Revolution

Jack Marietta - U.S. Colonial and Revolution

Oscar Martinez - 20th C. U.S., Mexican-U.S. Borderlands, Mexican American

Katherine Morrissey - 19th/20th C. U.S., west, environmental

Roger Nichols - 19th C. U.S., Native American

Michael Schaller - 20th C. U.S., foreign policy, U.S. and Asia