The purpose of historical study is to make sense of human cultures and societies and their continuous change over time. The Department of History endeavours to answer contemporary questions through the study of history. We seek to liberate the discipline from a traditional approach that divides the past into separate national, cultural and religious categories. Instead, we utilise interdisciplinary techniques to develop a structural understanding of world and global history.
Our commitment to developing new understandings of history is evident in the educational curriculum we offer. Our curriculum is not organised in the traditional departmental structures of many institutions, such as those separating Japanese, European, and Asian history, and art history and archaeology. Instead, at Chiba University students belong to the Division of Historical Studies as a whole. This means that they can select and take courses, offered by academic staff across all departments, that best suit their interests beyond department boundaries and create a curriculum of their own according to their interests.
Our comprehensive approach also extends to our study of historical sources. Traditional history has relied heavily on manuscripts and printed sources, with other categories of historical data almost completely ignored. Such practice severely limits the possibilities of historical research. At Chiba University, our common task is to make the best use of a variety of different types of historical sources to unearth fresh insights into the past. The Division of Historical Studies consists of three departments, but the three departments each emphasize the use of different types of materials, and each department strives to achieve more sophisticated use of its main type of historical sources.
The program of the Department of Cultural Heritage specialises in the analysis of archaeological, and ethnological sources. Students are given the opportunity to participate in a range of fieldwork programs, including archaeological excavation at historical sites and training for curator work in regional and nation-wide museums. The Department of Images and Documents focuses on visual culture. Through the analysis of images with iconographical, iconological and the other art historical method, deeper understandings of historical context can be explored which go beyond conventional text-based perspectives. Finally, the goal of the Department of History is to create a new multi-layered understanding of the human past that combines micro-history with global history. Our department members cover a wide sphere of historical field, both geographically and chronologically, and employ a wide range of methodological concepts to explore such diverse topics as nationalism, race, gender and ethnicity in local, region, and international contexts.