Choose your path and fuel your curiosity through the undergraduate and graduate programs
Why Study History at UIS?
Small class sizes that offer individualized instruction and close interaction with students and professors
An online BA program that offers the same quality instruction as on campus, taught by the same professors
Access to significant historical sites like the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum, the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, a home built by Frank Lloyd Wright, and other points of interest
A rigorous, wide-ranging curriculum taught by tenured professors who are experts in their fields and award-winning teacher-scholars
Applied study internships at libraries, archives, historic sites, and other institutions, particularly in state government
History awards and scholarships
Study Abroad Opportunities
A Note from the Chair
Welcome to the online home of the UIS History Department! We are an active department of ten full-time faculty, committed teacher-scholars engaged in academic research, community partnerships, and active teaching practices.
We offer a number of different degree programs: a BA degree, an online BA, and a Masters’ program in History with three distinct streams – US, European/World, and Public History.
Our students graduate into a variety of different fields – including business, law, government, teaching, and public service. Over 90% of our graduate students receive funding through the Graduate Assistant and Graduate Public Service Internship programs run by UIS. You can find out more about current students and recent alumni here.
We have strong partnerships inside the university and in the wider community. At UIS, students will have the opportunity to work with Sangamon Experience, dedicated to studying local history, and the Center for Lincoln Studies. In addition, our department has worked with the Illinois State Museum, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, the Illinois Military Museum, and the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. We continue to explore and offer opportunities for internships and study abroad experiences for all our students.
Thank you for your interest in our program. If you’d like to find out more about who we are and what we do, please get in touch – I can be contacted via email, and you can contact our department office using the information below.
I look forward to welcoming you to UIS in the future!
Ken Owen
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of History
University of Illinois Springfield
Mission
The History Department helps students understand themselves and the world in which they live by exploring the links between the past and the contemporary world.
Vision
The Department encourages students to compare elements of their own culture with those of other cultures from other time periods. Students of history gain a sense of what is unique in—as well as generally characteristic of—individuals, groups, and national cultures in the present as well as the past.
About Our Faculty
The UIS History faculty consists of internationally-recognized, award-winning scholars with expertise in East Asia, the Modern Middle East, Late Antiquity, Ancient Greece, Colonial and Nineteenth-Century America, Twentieth-Century America, Public History, Women's and Gender History...and more!
Emeriti Faculty
Robert K. McGregor
Emeritus Professor of History
Ph.D. American History – Environmental Issues
Larry Shiner
Emeritus Professor
Ph.D. Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy
Université de Strasbourg
William H. Siles
Emeritus Professor of American History
Ph.D.
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
In Memoriam
Cullom Davis
Emeritus Professor of History
Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Deborah Kuhn McGregor
Emerita Associate Professor, History, Women’s Studies, and African-American Studies
Ph.D. History
Binghamton University
