Department of History

The Department of History is the second department in the College of Humanities and was established in (1998-1999) by Dr. Nabaz Majeed Amin and Assistant Lecturer Sazan Hussein Ibrahim. Initially, the department had only two lecturers, but after the return of several experts from abroad, the number of lecturers increased. The Department of History has continued to educate students academically since its establishment. In this context, (1700) bachelor’s degrees, (75) master’s degrees, and (48) doctoral degrees have been awarded to students in different fields of history until the 2021–2022 academic year. Moreover, since its establishment, the Department of History has organized several activities, such as the Qazi Mohamed Festival, the Kirkuk Festival, the International Conference on Kurdish Genocide in 2013, the Anfal Commemoration, the International Sykes-Picot Conference, and the Silver Jubilee of the Department of History, at the departmental, college, and university levels.

The History Department is one of the pillars in the college of Humanities. It aims to make the students learn, understand, analyze, and be aware of the past and its legacies through teaching, research and other additional activities in Kurdish history in the context of regional and world history. We believe that only a critical understanding of the past will enable the students to understand the present and help them look towards the future.

The mission of the Department of History is to educate students about the history of our nation and the history of the world, in addition to the academic endeavors to preserve and write the history of our nation. For this purpose, several methods will be employed, such as historical research, historical comparison, historical criticism, etc.

• Students will learn to apply historical methods to evaluate critically the record of the past, interpret primary documents and secondary sources,  qualitative and quantitative data in order to evaluate historical events.

• Students will be able to understand, compare, contrast, and explain differences between historical accounts and the historical contexts of different historical interpretations and  point out strengths and weaknesses of a historical argument.

•  students will obtain essential historical research skills, including the effective use of libraries, documents, archives, and databases. They also learn to analyze how local, national, and international policies and practices developed in the past continue to impact their contemporary lives, and shaping their future.

• Students will demonstrate their mastery of the knowledge and skills involved in historical practice by conceptualizing and executing a significant piece of original research. Additionally, they  learn communication skills to organize and express their points of view, opinions, and thoughts clearly as well as coherently both in writing and orally.

In order to achieve the department’s goals, several methods are employed by the department, for instance: historical research, historical comparison, historical criticism, etc.

The Language is mainly Kurdish  with some modules in Arabic and English

The duration of study at the Department of Geography is 4 academic years, divided into 8 semesters. Each semester is 30 ECTS, and each ECTS is 27 hours.