Graduate Study in World History

The University of Pittsburgh's History Department is an excellent destination for graduate students interested in World History. Our program prompts students to apply comparative, cross-cultural, transnational, and global approaches to their research, interpretation and teaching whether they are exploring transregional phenomena or studying the histories and historiographies of particular places. Faculty members mentor students in defining and executing world historical research projects and making global connections. Studies in world history emphasize the interplay of regional and local histories with global patterns.

Graduate students with interests in world history also benefit from the History Department’s robust undergraduate world history curriculum. World History is one of Pitt’s largest-enrollment undergraduate courses. Graduate students can work as teaching assistants in undergraduate World History courses and later teach the course themselves as instructors of record. They can further pursue a Credential in Teaching World History offered by the History Department in consultation with the World History Center and they can participate in conversations about world history teaching beyond the academy through the World History Center’s various educational outreach programs.

Pitt's History Department features an excellent group of world history faculty including WHC Director, Ruth Mostern, Associate Director Raja Adal, former WHC Director Diego Holstein, and former WHC Associate Director Molly Warsh. Many other Pitt History Department faculty members incorporate transregional and global perspectives into their work as well. The History Department offers the course "Teaching World History" to graduate students. 

For more about graduate study at Pitt, view the History Department's video series "Why History at Pitt."

The World History Center supports graduate students in Pitt's Department of History in a variety of ways. The WHC administers the Teaching World History Credential. Graduate students in the History Department may pursue a credential in Teaching World History as part of their professionalization portfolio. As of spring 2022, the WHC is proud to have awarded the teaching credential to three graduate students: Dr. Matthew Plishka (Collaborative Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship at Vanderbilt), Leonardo Moreno-Alvarez (Visisting Lecturer, University of Pittsburgh), Dr. Aura Jirau Arroyo (Assistant Professor Eastern Illinois University), Dr. Bethany Wade (Postdoctoral Fellow at Emory's Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry), and Dr. Marcy Ladson (Teaching Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh). The WHC earmarks funding for graduate students to reimburse eligible costs for attending conferences or conducting research. The WHC also hosts a graduate student fellow each year, reserved for a history graduate student whose dissertation is related to the global or transregional past (scroll down for a list of current and former fellows). Graduate students are warmly invited to participate in other activities at the WHC and to meet with the scholars who visit the center.

Graduate Student Fellows: 

Current Ph.D. Students

Sharon Zhang, 2023-2024

Krysta Beam, 2022-2023

Ana Fumurescu, Fall 2021

Jim Sauls, Spring 2022 

Vicky Shen, 2020-2021

Alumni

José Andrés Fernández Montes de Oca, 2019-2020

Jacob Pomerantz, 2018-2019

Bennett Sherry, 2015-2018