The Department of History conducts an exceptional variety and number of research projects. They are funded largely by bodies such as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Most of the Department's professors carry out individual projects. Many of them are also involved in group projects, as part of local or international research groups and interuniversity teams.

The Department's open-minded and cosmopolitan faculty includes an impressive number of multilingual professors who are members of national and international learned societies. Many of them are frequently sought out by the media to comment on current events and historical trends.

The main departmental research interests are:

• Identities, alterities, differences
  
  The study of social structures and socio-economic inequalities, encompassing research into cultural history and mindsets. This field takes in national, religious, class and gender identities, among other concerns, in all parts of the world and in every time period.

• Societies and cultures in the Atlantic world
  
  This area covers the history of societies that developed around the Atlantic starting in the lower Middle Ages. Topics include the flow of goods, people, ideas and techniques. It emphasizes comparative history through time and space.

• Power, from local to international
  
  This area of research focuses on the relationships between States and between constituted power and civil society. Among other topics it examines the formation and expansion of empires and the impact of these processes on metropolises and peripheral areas. The exercise and retention of power are examined from different angles: economic, political, scientific, social and cultural. This field mainly concerns Europe and the United States as centres, and the rest of the Americas and East Asia as peripheral areas.