SLU’s graduate programs in history feature considerable intellectual depth in the three Ph.D. fields of medieval Europe, early modern Europe, and U.S. history. Faculty are important scholars in their fields and have strong publication records with reputable presses, serving as consultants, writing and speaking about matters of public interest, and offering leadership in academic organizations. Faculty have won grants to support research and teaching from a number of institutions, including the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Philosophical Society, the Humboldt Stiftung, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Institute for International Education (Fulbright), the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the School for Advanced Research.

The graduate programs also benefit immensely from the rich vein of resources available to M.A. and Ph.D. students at the university and in the St. Louis area. Pius XII Memorial Library houses the Vatican Film Library on microfilm and an extensive rare book collection with works from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Adjacent to campus, the Jesuit Archives and Research Center will soon hold all of the archival materials from all Jesuit provinces in the United States except for the Maryland Province. Across the city, the Mercantile Library, the Missouri Historical Society, and the Archives of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart (to name but one of the many archives of the Roman Catholic orders headquartered in St. Louis.) offer wonderful research opportunities.

The commitment of the faculty to excellence in graduate education and the abundant research collections have contributed to a remarkable degree of professionalization among SLU  graduate students in history. They regularly present papers and organize sessions at conferences, participate in NEH Summer Institutes, publish peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and take jobs in colleges and universities across the United States, in the U.S. government, and in private corporations.