Department of History / Institute of Humanities

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History is one of the oldest and most glorious academic disciplines at Tsinghua University. After its establishment in 1911, Tsinghua began to offer courses of Chinese and Western History. In 1926, the History Department was officially established, and its faculty then included many well-known scholars, such as Wang Guowei, Liang Qichao, Chen Yinke, and under the influence of these scholars gradually took shape the academic tradition of “Zhongxi Ronghui,Gujin Guantong” (combining the Chinese and Western learning, linking the ancient and the modern). Many graduates from the Department became outstanding scholars in the fields of history. In the 1952 nationwide restructuring of institutions of higher education in China, the Department was abolished and the faculty members were moved to Peking University and other universities.

After the 1980s, Tsinghua began to restore its programs in the humanities, and history was included. In 1985, the Institute of Humanities was founded, focusing mainly on the Chinese intellectual and cultural history. The History Department was re-created in 1993; and in 2001, the Central Institute of Crafts and the Fine Arts merged into Tsinghua, whose art history major, widely acknowledged in the nation, has become an important constituent of history studies at Tsinghua as a result. The History Department merged with the Institute of Thought and Culture in 2003, which greatly revitalized the History Department. The Department has been actively seeking cooperation with scholars in other fields at the campus. An outstanding faculty, cross-disciplinary collaboration on national and international levels, and a large collection of books and research materials have brought the history studies at Tsinghua to the leading position academically.

The History Department is at the core of history studies at Tsinghua, and it has teaching and research branches in ancient Chinese history, modern Chinese history, world history, intellectual and cultural history. The Department has some research centers: Center for Excavated Texts Research and Protection,Center for Chinese Ritual Studies.

The Department presently has more than 28 full professors, associate professors, lecturers, and a few adjacent professors. The faculty includes a Fellow of Euro-Asian Academy of Sciences, a member of the evaluation group for history under the Academic Degree Committee of the State Council, a member of the National Directing committee of Historical Teaching, and presidents and vice presidents of national academic associations. The Department has been authorized to enroll undergraduate, graduate, doctoral students and international students in all areas of the study of history. Its postdoctoral programs in Chinese History and World History are also open to the national and international applicants.

Currently, Professor Hou Xudong serves as Chair of the Department, and Professor Liu Guozhong and associate professor Fang Chengfeng as Vice Chairs.

Address: Department of History, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P. R. China

Postal code: 100084

Tel: 86-10-6278 5745

Fax: 86-10-6278 5745

Email:lsx@tsinghua.edu.cn; sxwhsbgs@tsinghua.edu.cn