University of Houston Department of History

10/21/2026

10/21/2026

Alumnus alert! Congratulations, Dr. Derek Ide (PhD '23), on the publication of your new book!

10/21/2026

Come join the History Department for our Fall Faculty-Student Meet-and-Greet on Tuesday, October 27, at the UH CLASS Building, Room 302. Drop in anytime between 1:30-3pm to (re)connect with history students, faculty, and staff. Light refreshments provided!

10/19/2026

Transferable skills are the central feature of a history degree. So says Samuel DeLeon, who graduated from UH in 2021 with a dual BA in History and Political Science. DeLeon currently works as a project manager for Trio Electric, an electrical contracting company based in Houston. Much of the company’s work is on the construction of hospitals, biosciences buildings, and higher education buildings – including a current project at UH. As project manager, DeLeon ensures that all aspects of a large construction or renovation job work together smoothly.

This is where DeLeon’s history degree comes into play. While he had to learn some of the technical aspects of electrical projects on the job, he uses the fundamentals from his undergraduate degree all the time. Both written and verbal communication skills honed by history classes like Dr. Cathy Patterson’s Stuart Britain capstone are critical to his role, as he often dialogues with project personnel and has to explain protocols or regulatory codes to the workers actually doing the project. His historical training in asking good, pertinent questions also proved key. In fact, it was these skills which helped DeLeon secure his position; his company generally looks for applicants with some engineering background, but he was able to highlight his communication skills and show that he could develop the technical knowledge on the job.

De Leon also notes that a history degree taught him how to do research, which in his job translates to digging into documents to find answers, researching different manufacturing sources for purchasing, and assessing different information sources to support decision-making for the technical experts. As he spends much of his time reading a wide variety of documents closely, he appreciates how a history degree taught him to identify the best sources and to pay attention to “the fine print” to find information critical for a successful project.

The history major skills of adaptability, intellectual agility, and open-mindedness have also served DeLeon in a difficult job market. After finishing his undergraduate degrees in 2021, DeLeon completed an MBA/Master of Healthcare Administration double degree through Texas Women’s University in 2025. He hopes to eventually move into an industry more directly related to his interest in the healthcare field but appreciates how much he is learning in his current role and applying the skills he learned in his BA. Way to go, Samuel!

10/15/2026

What’s the value of a humanities degree in a tech-driven world?Let our alumnus George Hodgkins tell you. He graduated from UH in 2016 with a major in Electrical Engineering and a minor in History. Currently living in Colorado, where he develops compilers for quantum computers, here’s what he had to say about studying history in college:

What do you see as the value of your history degree?
“I want to understand the world I live in, and the past created the present and is key to understanding it. Also, it’s really cool to learn about the diversity of structures and experiences across the world - as well as the common elements.”

How has your history degree helped you in your career path?
“Big-brain answer: Studying history helps me to understand institutions (businesses, universities, the DMV, etc) and how their "behavior" emerges from the underlying group of people - and thus practically how to best interact with them.

Simple answer: Taking history classes gave me much more experience communicating effectively through writing than most engineers.”

Is there anything you would like incoming undergraduates to know about a degree in history?
“The ability to read and write a lot of long-form text effectively may be increasingly in-demand for AI-heavy workplaces.”

Studying history is more than a minor - it's a toolkit.

10/14/2026

Alumni alert! UH History major alumna, Karla Rodriguez, was recently featured in The Washington Post about her role with the Congressional Hispanic Staff Association.

“If we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” said Karla Rodriguez, a digital director for Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-Maryland), and a spokesperson for the CHSA, in a statement. “Latino voices must be present in the senior roles where Congress sets priorities, writes policies, and makes decisions.”

Check out the full article here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/10/08/hispanic-staffers-make-up-only-9-percent-house-workforce-report-finds/

The U.S. population is about 20 percent Hispanic and Latino.

10/13/2026

Congratulations to PhD Candidate, Rahil Asgari, on her article in International Public History, "The Notebook, the Closet, and the Film: Iranians Processing Trauma Through Public History, Case Study: The 1988 Executions.”

"Iranians who lost loved ones during the revolutionary period (1979–89) have struggled with trauma for more than 40 years. The pain of loss and the knowledge of the torture that happened in the prisons have haunted Iranians who have unintentionally tried to process their trauma through public history. In this article I explore some of these cases by drawing upon interviews I conducted with family members, using them to provide a theoretical framework that demonstrates how generational experience contributed to the ways families, largely unaware of this historical field, utilize public history for healing purposes. Oppression has forced Iranians to engage with audiences as limited as one’s family or as broad as on a global scale. As some Iranians have moved into diaspora, and with the transition of developed trauma into an inherited form, the fear of oppression has decreased generationally, increasing the levels of engagement with the public. This has encouraged Iranians living inside the country to join in such efforts on a larger scale. Whether public, semi-public, or less-than-public, all cases demonstrate how the process of healing has evolved into a form of resistance that strives for engagement while defying the forces that seek to silence them."

10/12/2026

Congratulations to Dr. John Sbardellati, who just received a significant write-up in Popular Mechanics regarding his work with declassified files of the FBI and CIA and Cold War Hollywood. Read the full article here:

Declassified files reveal how Cold War image-making shaped race in classic Hollywood films.

10/10/2026

This October, the Department of History is pleased to welcome Dr. Gulnara Naizabayeva as a visiting scholar from Kazakhstan. A postdoctoral scholar at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty, Dr. Naizabayeva examines the history of traditional nomadic Kazakh clothing and crafts, focusing on their modern adaptation within a society experiencing rapid integration into global markets. Alongside historical research, her project incorporates extensive ethnographic fieldwork across Kazakhstan’s regions. While at Houston, Dr. Naizabayeva will collaborate with Dr. Alexey Golubev to refine her research methodology and gain insight into the organization of research and teaching in American academia. Her postdoctoral project, including the UH visit, is supported by a national research grant for early-career scholars under Kazakhstan’s “Zhas Galym” program.

10/08/2026

Film director and bandleader Alun Wade (right) in conversation with Professor Rachel Breunlin of the University of Louisiana following the Houston premiere at UH of the award-winning documentary film, "Tukki: From the Roots to the Bayou." Students and faculty from the UH Department of History, French Studies, and the Moores School of Music attended and participated in an enthusiastic conversation following the film..