Our department began as a graduate program in 1945 and consistently ranks at the top. Our graduate training focuses especially on social justice, community engagement, structural racism and inequality, recovery of historical silences, American empire, public art, and public history, to name a few thematic foci.  Our pedagogy embraces work that moves beyond the textual to the visual, material, and performative. And our faculty are engaged teachers and dynamic mentors.

Our alums go on to competitive doctoral programs, law school, non-profit work, research positions, secondary teaching, journalism, activism, and corporate positions, and we believe that as a consequence of their work at Brown they are better prepared to see their work realized within meaningful local, national, and global contexts.