BA in History

The student of history is a traveler in many lands. Like all travel, the study of the past–whether in a single course or a dozen–broadens and enriches the human mind and the human personality. The study of history helps us to become decent, literate, humane, compassionate, knowledgeable people who recognize that we cannot deal with the present or prepare to cope with the future without an understanding of the past. Moreover, it is from a study of the past that we acquire familiarity with the great tradition of human values and human dignity.

Mission

The mission of the History Program is to provide students with knowledge about the origins and development of peoples in the past, as well as to develop their ability to conduct research, analyze evidence, and express defensible conclusions orally and in writing. History majors will be prepared for successful professional careers as secondary teachers, college or university professors, journalists, lawyers, civil servants, and historians in government and private agencies. Studying the past will prepare literate, conscientious, and informed persons who appreciate the legacies of history and understand how it affects the present.

Goals & Objectives

• Graduates will be critical readers of both primary and secondary sources, and will use and properly cite both types of evidence in their written work.
• Graduates will master the formal styles of writing, argumentation, and presentation that historians use in their work.
• Graduates will achieve a basic mastery of research techniques in history.
• Graduates will have effective oral presentation skills.
• Graduates will understand historiography.
• Graduates will have a general familiarity with the intellectual, political, economic, social, and cultural history of the United States, Europe, Classical Civilization, the Near-East, and one “Non-Western” area.
• Graduates will understand the roles of race, class, gender, and ethnicity in history.

Learning Outcomes

1. Student’s work demonstrates the ability to communicate historical knowledge, interpretations, and arguments clearly, in writing and in formal oral presentations.
2. Student’s work demonstrates research and information literacy skills using scholarly resources, including the critical use of both print and electronic research tools, as well as the proper citation of both primary and secondary sources.
3. Student’s work reflects the ability to identify arguments in historical scholarship and to evaluate them critically.
4. Student’s work reflects an understanding of intellectual, political, economic, social, and cultural history.
5. Student’s work reflects an understanding of the constructions of race, color, gender, or ethnicity in history.