Social Science History Program

Mission

The Social Science History Program is an interdepartmental program of the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University involving faculty and graduate students from the Departments of Classics, Economics, History, and Political Science. Its goal is to combine the analytical tools and techniques of the social sciences with the appreciation for institutions and evidence associated with the discipline of history.

Developing the Potential of Students

A signature element of SSHP is the “vertical integration” of research teams, whereby senior faculty, undergraduates, and graduates work together to collect and analyze primary data. As a result of acquiring advanced skills early on, many undergraduate team members parlay their experiences into substantial achievements such as senior honors theses, prestigious internship placements, PhD programs, and distinguished awards such as a National Science Foundation fellowship and a Rhodes scholarship.

More on SSHP

Faculty Director 

Steve Haber, the A.A. and Jeanne Welch Milligan Professor in the School of Humanities and Science; and the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Research Programs

  • The Democracy Project seeks to understand how democratically less developed countries transition their economies and political systems to join those that are more advanced.
  • The Political Economy of Finance explores the causes of financial development and their long term role in economic growth.
  • The Myth of the Resource Curse employs historical data on oil and mineral producing countries to determine the effects of such production on economic and political development.
  • Classics and the Social Sciences builds strong ties and collaborations with the Classics Department