HIS - History
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Program Code
HIS
Program Attributes
Major, Minor
Program Description
History, the disciplined study of the past, uses rigorous methods and diverse sources to understand the changes that occur over time. Historians seek to address the human need to know who we are and where we came from. They seek out the continuities between remote times and our own day, while imaginatively recapturing lost worlds vastly different from our own. History can focus on both ordinary people and on famous names. Studying ideas, belief systems, political institutions, and social and economic structures can make events and facts more meaningful to people. History also entails understanding the writings, methods, and attitudes of earlier historians, whose views and narratives contributed to older and newer debates about the past. Far more important than merely mastering dates and details is the greater respect for the past and greater humility about the present gained by students of history. History students learn to appreciate the lesson that deliberate actions often have unanticipated consequences. They learn to see individual intentions and actions in context, and they question commonly-held assumptions about the naturalness or inevitability of our own ideas and ways of doing things. In seeking to understand the past, students of history hone their skills as writers, readers, researchers, and critical thinkers.
Objective
Articulate their original historical arguments and research in an appropriate medium to relevant audiences, and present it in logically-organized, lucid prose in written and verbal forms.
Objective
Gain the ability to think in historical context and understand the causes and consequences of historical events in terms of the motivations (agency, resources, ideology, needs, etc.) experienced by historical actors.
Objective
Understand and appreciate how and why historians’ interpretations and approaches to the past have changed over time.
Objective
Understand the proper use of primary and secondary materials in constructing arguments and in coming to sound conclusions.
Objective
Know how to develop a research topic, find and use evidence to generate a well-reasoned historical argument, and present their findings in lucid prose.