History (BA)
Program Description
Why should you study History? As we enter an uncharted future shaped by artificial intelligence, History will help you to develop interdisciplinary knowledge and versatile skills that may be adapted to a range of professional pursuits. It trains you to think critically, write with clarity, conduct original research, and solve problems by analyzing complex evidence drawn from diverse societies and time periods. By introducing you to the plural pasts that have shaped our world, it prepares you to engage with issues of enduring global significance and to live and work almost anywhere in the world.
History studies how human societies are transformed over time. It seeks to understand both the origins of the modern world and the ways human experiences differ and intersect across time and space. Students who study History at NYUAD analyze historical change as it unfolds across interconnected parts of the world, learning to see the past beyond national and Eurocentric frameworks. They explore questions about power, belief, and identity; about migration, colonialism, and conflict; about the environment, the state, and decolonization; about how knowledge, wealth, and social difference have been produced and contested across time. The history program equips students with the tools to produce original research, engage broader non-academic audiences, and understand the relevance of historical thinking for interpreting and acting in the present world
Employers across every sector demand these qualities, for no technology will ever render them obsolete. Universities and institutions across the world report that history graduates are among the most sought-after by recruiters not simply in academia and teaching, but also in law, government and public policy, international development, journalism, publishing, museum curation and heritage management, business and finance, marketing and communications, the nonprofit sector, archival science, entertainment and media, and entrepreneurship and management consulting.
Studying history at NYUAD with its location at what is - and has historically been - the global crossroads of the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf offers a unique opportunity to think critically about traditional academic narratives of the past. The curriculum at NYUAD decenters not only the location of knowledge production to Abu Dhabi through our faculty and their research. Our history curriculum is also explicitly organized around an oceans system instead of a continental approach so that students are required to fulfill course requirements through an epistemological rethinking of historical space. The Asia-Pacific World, the Atlantic World, the Indian Ocean World, and the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Sea World. We believe that history is understood differently if we consider history through this oceanic prism. Instead of seeing the world as a collection of static landmasses separated by barriers, we view the oceans as the primary connective tissue of human civilization. Additionally, our students aren’t just learning in Abu Dhabi; they are part of a circuit that includes New York, Shanghai, and various nodes in the Global Network University (GNU) of NYU. They can avail themselves upon history courses specific to the specific region while studying abroad.
Students can enter the major from a range of different globally-situated vantage points - such as “Africa in the World”; “History in the Headlines: The Americas”; “Indian Ocean World”; or “Alexander and the East”; progress toward more strictly globally thematic classes - including “Police in Global Perspective”; “Genocide in Global Perspective”; and “Museums and Empire” - and then advance toward courses that offer a sustained engagement with more regionally focused areas with a specific thematic focus - for example, “Muslim Societies in African History”; “Nationalism in the Middle East”; “The Arts and Politics of Latin America”; or “Asian Borderlands”. Students are encouraged to take classes that compliment and broaden their perspectives on the past, and the diverse materials used to analyze the past. History also cross-lists with a number of related disciplines, such as Archaeology and the Ancient World, Arab Crossroads Studies, Art and Art History, and Heritage.
Two required courses, “History and Globalization” and “Writing History,” create a shared vocabulary among our students of theoretical innovation and a foundation for the creative practice of producing original historical research for the History Capstone during the senior year. History majors leave NYU Abu Dhabi with a foundation of knowledge that is genuinely globally comparative and regionally informed.
The History Program also focuses on the study of Public History, which eventually will be a separate track within the major. (Public) History at NYUAD focuses on how to make historical knowledge accessible, relevant and engaging for broader audiences. Students will learn to interpret and present history for non-specialist audiences through (i) museums, archives and libraries; (ii) historic sites and monuments; (iii) community heritage projects (iv) documentary films, podcasts and other digital platforms. This will help bridge the gap between historical research and the public understanding of the past. By integrating Public History into the overall History curriculum, the history that students will learn at NYUAD is relevant outside of the classroom and beyond traditional academic/university settings.
Admissions
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