Department of History
Learning from people and events from other times and places while interpreting the past and considering how to deal with contemporary issues.
About the department
The Department of History offers students from any major a rewarding educational experience. As they seek to recover and interpret the past in all of its messy and fascinating manifestations, historians read a lot, write a lot, and speak a lot; they develop critical thinking skills which allow them to pursue successful careers not only as historians, archivists, and curators/museum professionals but also as lawyers, entrepreneurs, government officials, and leaders in the nonprofit sector.
Our 14 full-time faculty members have written award-winning books and articles on research topics ranging from the military in ancient China to public health in Latin America to the the Kansas-Missouri border during the Civil War. While we commend research, we also emphasize and prioritize teaching. More than a quarter of our faculty have won university-wide teaching awards. The majority of our classes are small, which means our students get plenty of attention, and undergraduate history majors are assigned to our dedicated and award-winning History advisor, Kathy Lillich, to help them navigate their way to successful completion of their degree.
Our major is designed to be broad, requiring students to take classes that vary widely across time and place, but the department has particular strengths in military, science, technology, medicine and environment, and gender history.
Recent GraduatesHolly HillMA Thesis: "Midwest by southeast: Aircraft manufacturing and the journey to Lao community building in Wichita, Kansas, 1975—1995”Sydney WolgastMA Thesis: “'Genius equall to that which wrought another most beautifull Poem': Classical Communication in the Writings of Mercy Otis Warren and Judith Sargent Murray."
The History Department offers a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degree in history, both require 36 hours of courses.
In addition to our MA and PhD programs, the History Department offers several Graduate Microcredentials.
The history department at K-State offers several departmental scholarships for new, continuing and transfer students.
Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains
Each year, the K-State department of history and the Kansas Historical Foundation collaborate to produce this scholarly journal focusing on new Kansas research and western history.