Studying Intellectual History at Harvard

Intellectual history is a diverse and thriving field of inquiry that emphasizes the transformation of ideas, ideologies, intellectuals, and scholarly institutions over time. Harvard’s Department of History is home to a great many intellectual historians. For sheer number, there are perhaps more of us here than at any other single department in Europe or North America, joined by affiliated faculty in Harvard's Department of Philosophy, the Department of Government, and the Department of the History of Science. We work on topics spanning the centuries and crossing the globe, from Asia to the Americas and from Ancient Greece to Modern Europe. 

Undergraduates at Harvard can choose intellectual history as their chosen field of specialization within the history concentration. Graduate students can designate fields for intellectual history in a particular time and place.

For a list of primary faculty in intellectual history in Harvard's Department of History, click here.

For a list of affiliated faculty in other departments at Harvard, click here.

For a list of affiliated faculty at neighboring institutions in the greater Boston area, click here.

To be directed to the website for the intellectual history colloquium maintained by the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard, click here.