The Institute

Founded in 2007, the Institute for Historical Studies provides a dynamic and multi-faceted intellectual community. It fosters creative and productive conversations within our department, between the Department of History and other University of Texas at Austin departments and centers, between our faculty and colleagues nationwide, and between the department and our community of alumni and neighbors. The Institute explores themes whose historical roots are of critical importance for the contemporary world as well as for the historical profession. It enhances and expands the department's long tradition of and continued commitment to excellence in historical research through publication and programming. It allows our graduate students to interact with a diverse group of excellent scholars beyond the department.

The institute’s programming connects the university and its wider community in discussions of topics that are central to our discipline and that have broad resonance in the individual and collective histories we all share.

Housed in the Department of History’s newly renovated, historic home, Garrison Hall, at the center of the university’s campus, the institute hosts varied programming, organized conceptually around two-year rotating themes, with university faculty, visiting fellows, and speakers from other institutions. It welcomes long term visitors as resident fellows at the senior, mid-career, and junior levels. We invite research scholars of all historical specialties who visit Austin to become associates of the institute community.