Brown University History Department

08/06/2026

The Department of History is excited to welcome its 2026–27 cohort of first-year graduate students to Brown! 🐻👋

From monsters and witchcraft to environmental consciousness and Indigenous relationships with the land, these incoming students bring a wide range of exciting research interests to College Hill. 🔮🌲

Learn more about each incoming student: bit.ly/4wcHWVo 🔗

08/05/2026

⭐ Job Opportunity: Assistant Professor, History of Early Modern East Asia (c. 1400-1850) ⭐

The Department of History at Brown University invites applicants for a full-time, tenure-track position, at the Assistant Professor level, in the History of Early Modern East Asia (c. 1400-1850.) While the successful candidate will have defended the Ph.D. dissertation by the time of appointment, we are seeking early-career candidates who will develop their first major monograph supported by the History Department’s robust mentorship program, including a manuscript workshop that generally takes place in the third or fourth year in the position.

Learn more and apply: apply.interfolio.com/190380

07/29/2026

🌟 Alumni Spotlight: Sofia Barnett ‘25 🌟

Barnett is a staff reporter at the Minnesota Star Tribune. In this spotlight, she reflects on the first year of her journalism career, how her Brown history education continues to shape her reporting, and her advice to current students in the department.

"Since graduating from Brown in 2025, I’ve been a reporter at the Minnesota Star Tribune in Minneapolis. I joined the newsroom as a public safety intern last June and, on my first day, found myself helping cover the assassination of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman.

Over the following year, I reported on breaking news, public safety and immigration. In August 2025, I was the first reporter on the scene of the Annunciation school shooting in Minneapolis. Our coverage of the shooting was awarded the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting. Reporting on the aftermath introduced me to students, parents and educators who entrusted me with deeply personal stories about grief, resilience and healing. Their willingness to share those experiences remains one of the greatest privileges of my career and continues to shape how I think about journalism and the responsibility that comes with telling other people’s stories."

Read the full spotlight:

Barnett is a staff reporter at the Minnesota Star Tribune. In this spotlight, she reflects on the first year of her journalism career, how her Brown history education continues to shape her reporting, and the advice she would offer to current students in the department.

07/01/2026

In a recent piece featured on the cover of history’s annual newsletter, Professor of History Karin Wulf and Postdoctoral Research Associate Rebecca Brenner Graham discuss Brown 2026: Marking 250 Years of American Democracy, a campus-wide, faculty-led initiative focused on the role of research and teaching universities in and for democracy—and about the fullest histories of the American Revolution. 🇺🇸

Since its launch in January 2025, Brown 2026 has worked with dozens of centers and departments across campus and with community organizations in Providence on over 60 events. The Department of History unsurprisingly has been a frequent and important partner.

Learn more about Brown 2026 on page 3 of history’s annual newsletter: bit.ly/4gaWmkG 🔗

06/24/2026

🌟 Alumni Spotlight: Andrew Rovinsky ‘25 🌟

Rovinsky is a rising second-year student at NYU School of Law. In this spotlight, he reflects on how his experiences in Brown’s Department of History prepared him for the first year of law school and discusses his goals for the future.

“My Brown University history education is what encouraged me to focus on the specific area of law I am interested in pursuing. At Brown, I focused mainly on modern European history and intellectual thought with Professors Omer Bartov and Holly Case. I also conducted historical research on the Illicit Global Economy for Professor Peter Andreas at The Watson School of International and Public Affairs at Brown University. All of this led me to a passion for International Law.”

Rovinsky is a rising second-year student at New York University School of Law. In this spotlight, he reflects on how his experiences in Brown’s Department of History prepared him for the first year of law school and discusses his goals for the future.

06/18/2026

It’s official — History Matters, Volume 40 has arrived! 🎉

Our annual newsletter celebrates the people, research, and stories that make the Department of History such a vibrant community. Inside this edition, you’ll find faculty news and accomplishments, undergraduate and graduate student spotlights, engaging exploration articles, and much more.

Whether you’re a student, alumnus, colleague, or friend of the department, we invite you to explore the latest issue and catch up on the work, achievements, and ideas shaping our community.

Visit history.brown.edu/media/newsletters to read Volume 40 and browse previous editions.

Download PDFs of each yearly edition of our departmental newsletter, History Matters.

06/09/2026

The prolific and preeminent historian of the American Revolution who taught at Brown for nearly four decades died on Sunday, June 7, at age 92.

06/02/2026

Congratulations, Class of 2026! 🎉 Your dedication to exploring the past, asking important questions, and advancing historical scholarship has brought you to this moment of well-earned success. We are so proud of all you have accomplished and excited to see what the future holds. 🎓



📸: Peter Goldberg Photography

05/20/2026

This past semester, History Ph.D. Candidate Ebru Erginbas had the pleasure of working with a talented group of students in her TA section for The Viking Age course taught by Professor Jonathan Conant. Students developed a range of final projects that reflected extensive research, thoughtful planning, and the historical themes and methodologies explored throughout the semester. “It was inspiring to witness the level of effort and creativity my students brought to their work,” Erginbas said.

Chris Parvarkin ’26 crafted an original Viking shield by sawing rectangular pieces of wood and assembling them into a circular design. He covered the shield with faux leather to make it as historically accurate as possible.

Classmate Ryan Duong ’28 developed a Viking Age-themed video game inspired by a longtime personal passion, grounding the current version in the historical context explored throughout the course.

Zohar Slave ’26 and Ömer Kızıl ’27 created a Viking Age board game called Hnefatafl, which is comparable to chess.

Read the full story and explore more final projects from HIST 1210A:

This past semester, History Ph.D. Candidate Ebru Erginbas had the pleasure of working with a talented group of students in her TA section for The Viking Age course taught by Professor Jonathan Conant. Students developed a range of final projects that reflected extensive research, thoughtful planning...

05/19/2026

from the Graduate School ♻️

Huge congratulations to Sarah Christensen, recipient of the Joukowsky Outstanding Dissertation Prize in the Social Sciences!

Her groundbreaking dissertation, Intimate Histories of Enslaved Women in Early Medieval Europe, 400–1200, challenges how we look at historical evidence by recovering the voices of women and girls systematically erased from the archives.

By reading between the lines of Norse sagas, Arabic traveler accounts, and Byzantine texts, and pairing medieval studies with Black feminist scholarship, Sarah brings the lived experiences, trauma, and resilience of these overlooked women to light.

Sarah completed her Ph.D. at Brown University and is currently inspiring the next generation of scholars as a Lecturer in the Writing Program at Princeton University.