From the earliest days of the University of North Dakota, history faculty have played an important part in preparing students to be engaged citizens of their communities, the state, and the world. Today the department remains committed to teaching the past and developing in our students the reading, writing, and critical thinking skills necessary to contribute to an increasingly global world. Each faculty member is an active researcher in their respective fields, and bring fresh perspectives on different cultures and ideas into the classes they teach.

The department offers B.A., M.A., Ph.D. and D.A. programs, which are supported by a faculty whose research interests span periods of American, Ancient, European, and African history. Faculty approach their fields using different methods, with an emphasis on social, cultural, military, gender, and intellectual history. Faculty and student research draw upon textual analysis, the study of material culture, quantitative methods, and oral history to bring the past alive.

The department promotes undergraduate and graduate student engagement with the discipline through a regional archive with collections of national significance, the largest library between Minneapolis and Seattle, the history honor society Phi Alpha Theta, several annual lectures, and editorship of the Oral History Review.