History

What stories will humanity tell about itself in the 21st century? The 20th-century story of the “Rise of the West” proves increasingly inadequate in our present day, and appears now to capture only a short-term realignment in the global distribution of power. Students who study History at NYU Abu Dhabi will learn about patterns of human experience — continuity and change — that always already exceeded such singular accounts of what we, in the singular and the plural, have become. History at NYU Abu Dhabi, moreover, engages students in the next and even more intellectually daunting task of developing an alternative account — indeed alternative accounts — of humanity’s collective and divided experience, in order to help us make sense of the challenges that the world, and the planet, face today. No decisions about the present or the future make sense without a clear understanding of the past.