It provides the context for a liberal education, the tools to understand ourselves and our contemporary world, and the skills for an educated person to live a more fulfilled and gratifying life in a wide range of careers. The emphasis is on accessing and analyzing information, the critical use of historical sources, learning to communicate the results, and the excitement which comes from exploring important ideas. The past becomes the universe, all of whose corners can be explored. The department offers course work in European, U.S., African, Latin-American, and East Asian history and thematic foci on social and urban history and the African Diaspora. The major program not only prepares students for teaching and for graduate study in history but many students have found history an appropriate preparatory foundation for careers in law, library science, international work, the foreign service, the ministry, business, government and archival and museum work.
History can be of inestimable value to nonmajors.
This can be done through the minor, the certificate programs, or by taking appropriate courses. Thus literature majors could benefit from taking history courses in the areas they are studying. Thirty-two semester hours of history are required to complete a major. All students must include the history of different parts of the world and different chronological periods. A total of 12 upper-level credits must be spread over the two remaining fields.