History
History is about people of the past. Historians study actors, structures, events, ideas and symbols and their meaning in a vast period of time - spanning from yesterday to thousands of years back in time.
The study of history helps us understand and provide explanations for the conditions of life in the past. Historians can also help show if and how humans might have had opportunity to affect and change these conditions. The field includes the question: how did we get where we are today?
The task of the historian is to give as just an image as possible of what once was. By shining a light on not only the most visible actors, but also the hidden or pushed away, we might also be able to strengthen people in the present.
Early Modern History
The Early Modern period (c. 1500-1800) evades easy characterization. Traditionally it has been regarded as a transition period between Medieval and Modern times in European history. However, historians today are more interested in global developments and their local manifestations.
Early Modern History
Environmental and Climate History
Climate and Environmental History studies how variations and changes in nature have impacted people and societies throughout history. The field also asks questions about how humans have adapted to these changes, how they have impacted nature in return, and how nature has been experienced and understood through time.
Environmental and Climate History
Maritime History
The sea is a means of transportation as well as a stage for violent battles. It separates nations and peoples - and it can bring them together. It is a site for trade as well as for plunder, it gives us vital natural resources while storms can make it deadly for some. This field studies humans' historical relationship to seas, oceans and waterways.
Maritime History
Medieval studies
Medieval times is a period of time in the history of Western Europe, from circa 500 to 1500 A.D - but it is also something more. It functions as a mirror for the present to define itself - for good and for bad - as the time when everything began, or the time which thankfully is history.
Medieval studies
