Native American peoples inhabited and visited the landscape encompassed within Wyoming for centuries prior to the founding of the University of Wyoming (UW) in 1887 and we would like to acknowledge the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Crow, Lakota, Shoshone, and Ute, on whose land we stand today.
Long committed to the history of the American West, the History Department at UW is uniquely positioned to situate this field in a global context. Drawing on expertise ranging from Europe, East and Central Asia, Africa, and the Americas, we strive to explore historical questions with thematic as well as comparative approaches. Our goal is to give students a truly global perspective on history.
At the most basic level, history teaches how to assess evidence, to access conflicting interpretations, to arrive at convincing arguments, and to speak and write about these arguments to a wide variety of audiences. These skills make history one of the foremost majors that graduate and professional schools and employers seek when they admit graduate students or hire employees. Viewed from a practical perspective, a history degree provides lifelong skills that are in demand in fields ranging from teaching and law to government and business administration. History is a very useful degree.
History is a foundational discipline that blends the methodologies and perspective of the humanities and social sciences in order to engage with the history of human culture on a global scale. UW's History degree program emphasizes interdisciplinary teaching and research and provides course work, research experiences, and internships on both American and international topics. The History program offers a Bachelor of Arts degree major and minor, and a Master of Arts degree.
UW History Professor Dr. Jeffrey Means was quoted by Colorado Public Radio in a news story about a toppled statue of a Colorado Civil War monument with connections to the Sand Creek Massacre.
UW History Professor Dr. Renee Laegreid was featured in the Caldera Productions & Wyoming PBS film, "The State of Equality: Wyoming Women Get The Vote."
UW History Professor and Department Chair Dr. Isadora Helfgott quoted in Sheridan Press news article examining "The American Dream." Click this link for the full Sheridan News article.
UW History Professor Dr. Adam Blackler and students participate in the ongoing nation-wide "History Unfolded" project, which involves research into local newspapers before and during WWII for information relating to persecution occuring in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s and how American communities perceived Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. Click this link for the full UW Branding Iron article.
UW History Professor Dr. Adam Blackler and students mentioned regarding "History Unfolded" project findings, including article about Japanese Americans at Wyoming's Heart Mountain internment camp in 1942. Click here for the full post from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Bustle, an online premium publisher reaching young women and based in New York City, interviewed UW History Professor Dr. Renee Laegreid for an article on how Wyoming gave women the right to vote 50 years before the rest of the country. Click here for the full article from Bustle.
Sykes.com and Google Trends finds "History" the most popular college major search for Wyoming.
April 19, 2022 ‖ Adam Blackler, an assistant professor in the University of Wyoming’s Department of History, recently received a grant to co-host the Trans-Atlantic Summer Institute (TASI) to discuss reparations in Germany.
March 11, 2021 ‖ The chair of the University of Wyoming’s Department of History and American Studies has been named UW’s associate vice provost for global engagement.
April 6, 2020 ‖ Thirty-five University of Wyoming instructors who inspire excitement, inquiry and autonomy in first-year courses are Promoting Intellectual Engagement (PIE) Award recipients.
May 1, 2019 ‖ Kayle Avery, University of Wyoming Art Museum employee and alumnus of UW’s Department of History, has been admitted into the Winterthur Program for American Material Culture at the University of Delaware.
March 20, 2019 ‖ The Department of History and American Studies has joined two other units within the University of Wyoming’s College of Arts and Sciences in garnering national attention.
History Building
Dept. 3198
1000 E. University Ave.
Laramie, WY 82071
Phone: 307-766-5101
Email: uwhistory@uwyo.edu
1000 E. University Ave. Laramie, WY 82071
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