Department of History

Department of History

The Department of History explores the past, seeking to understand how people have made the world, live in it, and seek change. We also examine what people do with memories and stories of the past, examining ideas of heritage, values and identities in our complex and diverse social, political, economic and cultural worlds.

Major & MinorCourses

In an era of "don't say gay" laws, Dr. Pippa Holloway, chair of the University of Richmond's Department of History, believes in the relevance and importance of teaching LGBT history to students for what they learn about courts, the Constitution, civil rights, and America as a whole. 

Learn more about Fall 2025 course offerings.

Announcements:
You can now find The History Department on Instagram. Follow @urhistory__ (two underscores) to learn more about events, classes, and additional announcements!
Giving Day

UR Giving Day April 9th & 10th

Your support of the University of Richmond’s School of Arts & Sciences (A&S) fuels a dynamic, interdisciplinary learning environment where students connect ideas across fields, tackle real-world challenges, and prepare to lead lives with purpose. Your generosity creates a lasting impact, shaping the academic journeys and futures of our students. 

Contributions to the A&S Dean’s Impact Fund, interdisciplinary programs, or any of our 24 departments help drive initiatives such as faculty-mentored student research across all disciplines, funding for students to present their work at conferences, and opportunities for hands-on fieldwork. These donations directly support students and faculty engaged in high-impact practices, enriching their UR experience and ensuring they have the resources they need to thrive.

Once again, our departments are competing for the most donors, with the top five departments earning bonus funds. A gift of any amount makes a lasting impact – and could help your favorite department climb the leaderboard. 

Molly Conger

Public History, Journalism, & Activism: A Conversation with Molly Conger

Wednesday, April 2nd | 5:30-7pm | Humanities Commons, Room 220

Co-hosted by the History Department and Journalism Department, this event is a public talk and Q&A with Molly Conger, a journalist and activist based in Charlottesville, VA, who is one of the country’s leading authorities on alt-right, white supremacist, and neo-Nazi movements in both the past and present. Conger gained national prominence while covering the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, during which neo-Nazis and white supremacists marched with tiki torches, shouting “Blood and soil!” and You will not replace us!” She also has a highly acclaimed public history podcast called “Weird Little Guys,” with each episode focusing on the story of a different male rightwing extremist in U.S. history. She conducts her own historical research for each podcast episode, digging into old newspapers and court cases and weaving them into an accessible “true crime” story for a broad audience.

The event will be co-moderated by Professor Michelle Kahn and Maria Byrnes, a sophomore who is majoring in History and minoring in Journalism. Professor Kahn is writing a book about the history of neo-Nazism, and she recently testified as an expert witness in the criminal case against one of the organizers of the Charlottesville riots. Maria worked as Professor Kahn’s research assistant for the Charlottesville case, and last summer she completed an A&S Summer Research Fellowship investigating the radicalization of far-right extremists on mainstream social media sites.

Jim Broomall

Welcome Dr. Jim Broomall

Dr. Jim Broomall joined us this semester as the William Binford Vest Chair in History. Professor Broomall is a cultural historian of Nineteenth-Century America. He specializes in American Civil War and Reconstruction, Southern History, and Public History. He is the author of Private Confederacies: The Emotional Worlds of Southern Men as Citizens and Soldiers, numerous articles and essays, and three major historic reports for the National Park Service.

For the past decade, Professor Broomall was on the faculty at Shepherd University, where he was the Director of the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War and the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education. He has led tours of battlefields and historic sites across the country, and he delivers numerous public presentations each year. Professor Broomall earned his M.A. at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and his Ph.D. at the University of Florida.

For spring semester 2025, Dr. Broomall is teaching HIST 204: The Civil War and Reconstruction. 

Marina Montesano

Welcome Dr. Marina Montesano

Dr. Montesano joined us this semester as the Visiting Cornerstone Chair. Her area of expertise is the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, particularly gender in the Middle Ages, East-West mobility in the Middle Ages, magic and witchcraft in Medieval and Renaissance Times, and cultural history. She has published many works, most notably Classical Culture and Witchcraft in Medieval and Renaissance Italy,  Folklore, Magic, and Witchcraft: Cultural Exchanges from the Twelfth to Eighteenth Century, and Cross-dressing in the Middle Ages. She has presented her scholarship at academic conferences and institutions across the world, including the Italian Cultural Institutes in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Cairo, Egypt, Hamburg, Germany, and Istanbul, Turkey.

Dr. Montesano graduated from the University of Bari and earned her Ph.D. in Medieval History from the University of Florence. During the final year of her four-year doctoral program, she spent a semester at Brown University. Upon returning to Italy, she was a fellow for one year at Villa I Tatti – The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. Following this, she began her academic career as an adjunct professor in Genoa and Milan and now holds a tenured position at the University of Messina.

For spring semester 2025, Dr. Montesano is co-teaching HIST 298: Medieval Travel & Travelers: A Global Middle Ages with Dr. Joanna Drell. 

Faculty Highlights

Dr. Pippa Holloway
Holloway wins annual award for best southern women’s history article

Pippa Holloway, Cornerstones Chair in History, won the A. Elizabeth Taylor Prize from the Southern Association of Women Historians for her article, “Virginia Penny’s ‘State of Desperation’: Anger, Insanity, and Struggle for Justice in Nineteenth-Century Kentucky,” which was published in Ohio Valley History.

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Dr. Yücel Yanıkdağ
Yanıkdağ Published

Yücel Yanıkdağ, professor of history, published "Ottoman and Turkish Exception(alism): States of Exception in Turkey, 1909–1927" in First World War Studies.

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Dr. Tze M. Loo
Loo Published

Tze M. Loo, associate professor of history and global studies, published “Actions toward Modern Japanese National Consciousness,” a translation of the Okinawan historian Gabe Masao's essay, “Kindai Nihon kokka ishiki e no taiō: Ryūkyū Okinawa chīki no ba’ai” and "Gabe Masao in Translation," an accompanying introduction to Gabe's scholarship in Pacific Historical Review.

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Dr. Sydney Watts
Watts Presented

Sydney Watts, associate professor of history and women, gender and sexuality studies, discussed her research project, "The Channel Islands: Borderlands Migration in the Atlantic World, 1763-1815” on the Hagley History Hangout Podcast during her scholar-in-residence term at the Hagley Museum and Library, in Wilmington, Delaware.

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Upcoming Events

Contact Us

Mailing address:
History Department
Humanities Building
106 UR Drive
University of Richmond, VA 23173

Phone: (804) 287-6041
Fax: (804) 287-1992

Department Chair: Dr. Pippa Holloway
Academic Administrative Coordinator: Catherine Hash