Welcome to the Department of History at the University of Florida!
History at UF starts with our creative and dynamic faculty, a community of more than 30 talented scholars. Our faculty’s exceptional scholarship and engaged teaching connect with audiences here on campus and around the world. Visitors to our site can find much more information about individual faculty and their work.
Our undergraduate program is, today, home to more than 300 History majors. Whether you are a current student, or a prospective freshman or transfer student, you will find much here of interest. We are proud of the community we have built with our students. Some of the highlights includes UF History’s exceptional Honors Program, and our impressively active chapter of Phi Alpha Theta. There are many other ways in which our undergraduate students can enhance their educational experience through UF History, including participating in the publication of our award-winning student journal, Alpata, or competing an undergraduate internship. Whatever path you choose to follow as an undergraduate, know that a History degree remains essential preparation for many careers, as well as graduate or professional education.
Our graduate program is currently home to roughly 40 active Masters and Ph.D. students, working in a variety of fields. Graduates of our program have gone on to outstanding careers in the academy and beyond and have published a great many scholarly articles and books. Prospective students interested in graduate study at UF will find a great deal of helpful information on this site! We hope you’ll take the time to explore what our program has to offer.
UF History is also the many thousands of students who have graduated from our program, and who continue to represent the department in their lives and careers beyond UF. We are very proud of our alumni! If you are a graduate of our program, you are always welcome to write to me and share your experiences after graduating from UF. We look forward to hearing from you and staying in touch.
The historian Eric Foner once wrote that “history always has been and always will be regularly rewritten, in response to new questions, new information, new methodologies, and new political, social, and cultural imperatives”—a discipline, in other words, that is necessarily dynamic and ever-changing. Here at UF History, we aspire to reflect that dynamism, while holding true to the essential traditions of scholarship in our discipline. Everyone, faculty, staff, undergraduates, graduates, and alumni are part of what gives this program its energy and spirit. I am grateful to each and every one’s contributions.
Sincerely,
Joe Spillane
Professor and Chair
spillane@ufl.edu
Why Get a History Major?
Ever wondered what you can do with a major in history here at the University of Florida? The quick answer is that you can do anything you want. History majors can be found everywhere, not just libraries and classrooms, and being a history major puts you in pretty interesting company.