Departments

The Department of Western History was established when the History Department of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences was divided into three departments – Department of Korean History, of Asian History, and of Western History – in 1969. In 1975, SNU moved to Gwanak Campus, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences was divided into the College of Humanities, the College of Social Sciences, and the College of Natural Sciences. The Department of Western History was reorganized under the College of Humanities. Since its inception, the Department of Western History has taken a leading role in Western history education and research and has produced competent figures in various fields.

The educational objectives of the Department of Western History are to understand the process of Western civilizations and their meaning in world history. Therefore, the professors and students of the Department of Western History endeavor to investigate the foundations, variations and characteristics of Western civilizations and find their connections with the Asian civilizations including Korea. The curriculum is designed to cultivate historical thought through broad studies of Western history based on periodic, regional, and thematic classifications. In addition, the department strives to help students develop historical research capabilities, focusing on the relationship between Western history, Asian history, and Korean history. In this way, the Department of Western History endeavors to foster a historical perspective for human kind and society.

The research scope of the Department of Western History is classified according to period, region and field. The categories subdivided by period criterion are ancient history, medieval history, modern history, and contemporary history; categories by regional criterion are European history, American history, African history, and Oceanic history. Furthermore, there are sub-categories by country, such as American history, British history, German history, French history and Russian history and categories by field criterion are those such as political history, economic history, social history, and cultural history. Other sub-categories include women’s history, environmental history , and global history. In order to understand Western history in terms of these diverse categories, there is a need to cooperate closely with fields of social sciences and natural sciences as well as literature and philosophy. Therefore, the Department of Western History also attaches importance to interdisciplinary academic approach. This is because historical studies, including Western history, are studies that comprehensively investigate the whole lives of people in accordance with the flow of time.