Commitment to teaching and dedication to intellectual growth are the hallmark of our department. Insisting on high standards, our mission is to stimulate students to excel. We gear our methods of instruction so that we can best improve reading, writing, and critical thinking.

The scholarship of Baruch's history professors has earned international recognition. Five Baruch historians have won Excellence in Scholarship Awards, two have been nominated for Pulitzer Prize, and several have been awarded the most prestigious grants in the nation from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fullbright Commission. In recognition of their expertise, several faculty members appear regularly on the History Channel, PBS, and the A&E Television Network. The sixteen fulltime professors in the history department are as diverse as the curriculum. Nearly half are women, and a third are either Hispanic, African-American, or Asian.

Full-Time Faculty

Ervand Abrahamian, Distinguished Professor
Iranian and Middle Eastern history and politics

Carol Berkin, Professor
American Colonial and Revolutionary history; women's history

Charlotte Brooks, Assistant Professor

20th century U.S., Asian American, urban, race, immigration, politics and policy

Myrna Chase, Professor and Dean of the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences; Modern European History; European and British Intellectual History

Thomas Desch-Obi, Assistant Professor
African and African Diaspora history

Julie Des Jardins, Assistant Professor
Modern American history, gender and American women

Vincent DiGirolamo, Assistant Professor
19th and 20th century history with focus on immigration and labor, New York City, childhood

Johanna Fernandez, Assistant Professor

20th-Century U.S. History, the history of social movements, the political economy of American cities, and African-American history

Bert Hansen, Professor
History of science and medicine; American history

Thomas R. Heinrich, Associate Professor
American business and industrial history

Veena Oldenburg, Professor
History of India; Third-World women

Katherine Pence, Assistant Professor,
German and women’s history

Alfonso Quiroz, Professor
Latin American history; Caribbean history

Murray Rubinstein, Professor
Asian history; Sino-American studies

Tansen Sen, Associate Professor Asian history; China, Japan, India; Buddhism

Clarence Taylor, Professor
Modern African American, Religion, Civil Rights

Randolph Trumbach, Professor
18th century England; social history; history of sexuality

Cynthia Whittaker, Professor
Russian and Soviet history; Modern European history

Faculty Emeriti

In addition to a number of valued adjunct faculty members, the department also benefits from continue association with its retired faculty members, designated emeriti.

Selma Berrol, Professor Emerita
History of Education; Urban History

Jane Bond, Professor Emerita
20th Century Europe; Modern France

Stanley Buder, Professor Emeritus
American urban history; history of housing and planning; American business

Henry L. Feingold, Professor Emeritus
American Jewish History; Holocaust Studies

Pamela Sheingorn, Professor Emerita
Medieval culture; Medieval history; women's history