About

MSU historians shaping the field

The Department of History at Michigan State University is a global community of scholars, teachers, and students dedicated to understanding the past and its power in the present. Our faculty and students conduct research across all regions of the world and a wide range of historical fields. Through innovative scholarship, engaging courses, and meaningful public outreach, MSU History connects rigorous academic work with the broader university and global community. Together, we explore history as a vital tool for critical thinking, informed citizenship, and social understanding.

Land Acknowledgement

We collectively acknowledge that Michigan State University occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary Lands of the Anishinaabeg – Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples. In particular, the University resides on Land ceded in the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw. We recognize, support, and advocate for the sovereignty of Michigan’s twelve federally-recognized Indian nations, for historic Indigenous communities in Michigan, for Indigenous individuals and communities who live here now, and for those who were forcibly removed from their Homelands. By offering this Land Acknowledgement, we affirm Indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold Michigan State University more accountable to the needs of American Indian and Indigenous peoples.

About

MSU historians shaping the field

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