History Needs Your Help!

We depend on the support of loyal alumni and friends like you to give students and faculty the extra support they need to succeed in their work. It’s impossible to overstate how much your generosity matters to us. With gifts like yours, we’re able to fund student and faculty research, offer scholarships to deserving students, and host world-class speakers, seminars, and other history-oriented events that enrich our History community.

Would you consider donating to the Department? We have a range of funds that help us provide much-needed assistance to our students and faculty with both general and particular needs. For instructions on how to give, scroll down to the bottom of this page.

If you are interested in making a general gift to the Department, the best way to do so is by contributing to our History Memorial Fund. This unique endowment was created through the visionary initiative of our faculty leaders more than three decades ago as a means to provide fundamental, sustained support for “the study and teaching of history” within the Department. In practice, this means that we use History Memorial to invest in our faculty and students in a wide variety of ways, including by funding student and faculty research, conference presentations, and scholarships. It’s the key fund that supports everything we do.

In addition to History Memorial, dedicated alumni have also helped us establish a series of named funds that honor some of our most admired emeriti faculty. These funds either provide awards and fellowship support to students in particular fields or contribute to the broader enhancement of our faculty. 

The Zane L. Miller Professorship in American Urban History

• Our much esteemed emeritus Zane Miller made a lasting mark on the study and teaching of the history of American cities. This named professorship honors his legacy as a pioneer in the urban history field.

The John K. Alexander Graduate Teaching Award

• This new teaching award honors the distinguished career of John K. Alexander, who joined the Department of History in 1969 and taught UC students for 43 years before retiring as Professor Emeritus in 2012. Over his long career, Dr. Alexander was an extraordinarily devoted and gifted teacher whose American history lectures inspired literally thousands of undergraduates, while also offering graduate seminars that guided dozens of Masters and PhD students toward their own successful teaching careers. 

The Barbara Ramusack Graduate Fellowship Fund 

• This fund honors Professor Barbara Ramusack, a leading scholar of South Asian history and a beloved mentor to generations of graduate students in the department. This fellowship is awarded annually to support the studies and research of a deserving graduate student working in the field of non-Western history. 

The Roger Daniels Summer Fellowship

• This fund provides a summer research scholarship to an excellent graduate student working in the field of US history. It honors the special achievements of Professor Roger Daniels, a long-time member of the department and one of the country’s most accomplished specialists in the history of US immigration.

The Hilda L. Smith Undergraduate Prize 

• Professor Hilda Smith is a distinguished professor of women’s intellectual history who was one of the founders of the women’s history field in the modern academy. This fund supports a yearly prize awarded to the best undergraduate paper on a topic related to the history of women, all regions, periods, and approaches included. 

To support one of these funds, or any priority within the department, please visit the UC Foundation website. When you click through, select the form of your gift and then as you click through again, make sure to choose "Undesignated Gift" from the drop-down menu and the amount you'd like to give.  Then type the name of your preferred History Department fund into the box below. This will ensure that your gift goes towards supporting the cause of your choice.

You can also call 513-556-2144 or mail your gift to:

College of Arts & Sciences
PO Box 210367
Cincinnati, OH 45221

Thank you so much for your gift! Every contribution counts. We’re very grateful for your dedication to our students and faculty.